Everything Burns
by majickworks85
Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School. SakxGaa, mild SakxSas, NarxHin, InoxKib
1. Prologue

**Title: Everything Burns**

**Author: majickworks85**

**Short Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School.**

**Pairings: Saku/Gaa, Nar/Hina, Shika/Tem, Ino/Kiba, Kan/Ooc, Sai/Ooc, mild Saku/Sas, Sas/Kari. **

**Warning: Rated M; for very strong language, violence, rape, and brief sexuality. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters. **

* * *

**Prologue:**

_Blood. _

_There was blood all over. _

_There was blood all over the walls, all over the floor, everywhere._

_This was something she saw only in the horror movies that her parents had always told her not to watch. They hadn't wanted her to watch the horror movies because they could give her nightmares. But now……she was living in a nightmare. _

_She was only a very little girl when the incident happened. She had lived with her parents in their nice house in the City of Konoha. She had been a very happy girl. She loved her parents and they loved her. She didn't have many friends though. Most of the kids her age teased her a lot because she was different from them. Unlike most of the other children, she was blessed, or rather cursed, with bubblegum pink hair and a rather large forehead. She was teased constantly by the other kids because of her hair and forehead. There was a few times where boys decided to throw rocks at her to see if they could hit her wide forehead. And that was when she met her two first friends. _

_One day, a rich boy snob had been teasing her, saying that he could hit her forehead with a rock without even trying. When a few other boys denied that he could, he tried it. But before the rock could even leave his hand, the boy's older brother had come up behind him and slapped the rock out of his hand before smacking him over the head. He scolded his little brother for picking on the pink haired girl and then threatened him and his friends if they picked on her again, he would deal with them. The boys ran off while the brother turned to the small girl and smiled at her. After that, they became friends.  
The girl's second friend, however, had a somewhat similar story, only it was a bunch of bratty girls who were being mean to her. They had been calling her ugly and a_ Billboard brow_, and just being down right nasty. That is until the girl came up and told them off. She even threatened to pound their faces in so that she and the pink haired girl would be the prettiest girls. When the girls left, the blonde stated that they, the blonde and the pinkette were the prettiest girls in the village._

_However, her friendship with the two didn't last too long. Not more than a few years, actually. _

_One day, right after her ninth birthday, the little girl came home from school only to see the most horrifying thing happening. The very minute she saw red paint splashed on the floor, she should have guessed that it wasn't paint at all. She still walked into the darkened house, closing the door and began looking for her parents. _

"_Mom! Dad! I'm home from school!" She had called. _

_But there had been no answer. _

_The little girl glanced down at the ground and saw a trail of red paint all over the floor, which led upstairs. She frowned as she stared at the red paint, noticing how thick it was. She wondered if her parents had decided to do some painting while she was in school. And if so, why hadn't they cleaned up the mess yet? It wasn't like them to leave a mess lying around. With a shrug, the little girl followed the trail of red paint to upstairs. She paused to see that some of the pictures that lined up along the wall had been knocked down. She felt herself growing very tense when she saw that some of them were broken. She did now not like this. This was definitely not looking good. Did her parents have a fight or something? It wasn't like them to fight. They had arguments now and then but fight? No. Something was wrong. _

_However, a faint cry caught her attention. The girl heard very unusual sounds coming from her parents' room. It sounded like her mother was crying. Was her mother hurt? The little girl frowned as she went up the stairs and headed straight towards the door, which was closed. She glanced down to see that the trail of paint also led to her parents' bedroom. _

"_Mommy?" The little girl tried to call but it came out as a whimper. She was now starting to get very scared. _

_The sounds were getting louder as she slowly approached the door before reaching out for the door knob. She froze with a jump when she heard another strange sound. It sounded like feet slapping against the concrete at the city pool and someone was grunting. Was that her father? The little girl swallowed hard before she reached up and grabbed the door knob. Slowly, she turned it and pushed the door open, though very slowly. Peering into the room, she looked for the source of the noises, only to freeze. The sight she saw was the most horrific thing she had ever seen. _

_Blood. _

_Blood. _

_There was blood all over. _

_There was blood all over the walls, all over the floor, everywhere._

_And the worst images that were burned into her memory were her father pinned to the wall with blades in his hands and his chest. He wore nothing. He was naked and it looked like someone had cut him badly. Blood was running down his entire body and his head was bowed down. Her mother was on the bed and she too was naked. But she was alive still, unlike him. She had blood all over her and her hands and feet were tied to the bed frame. She had silver, yet blood stained tape over her mouth to keep her from making any noise. Her emerald green eyes were wide as soon as she saw her daughter enter the room. She began screaming under the tape and trying to pull herself loose. _

_The little girl was terrified. She didn't like this game that her parents were playing. Was this just to get back at her for all of the horror movies she watched? Was this to scare her into stop watching them? It wasn't a very funny joke. _

_And that's when she felt someone grab her from behind. _

_The little girl tried to shriek but it was cut off when a very cold, pale hand covered her mouth and pinned her against a very thin chest. She tried to fight to get loose but whoever it was that had her, was stronger than her. She felt herself be pinned to the man's, yes it was a man, chest with a thin arm trapping her there. She struggled but it was useless. The man was stronger than her. Tears of fear began to pour down her cheeks as she felt the arms tighten around her. She knew this had to be some stranger who had his arms around her. She didn't recognize this voice. She tried to scream again but the hand over her mouth was firmly over it, keeping the noise in her throat. _

"_Shhhh." Came a very unfamiliar hiss. She didn't recognize that voice either. "It's all right, little one. I won't hurt you. Shhhh." _

_The girl shivered as she looked wide eyed at her mother, who was crying and screaming under the tape as she tried to pull herself loose. That is until someone the girl didn't recognize at all moved forward and held a knife to her throat. It was a young man, maybe in his early twenties, late teens. The girl wasn't too sure. She also couldn't tell what color his hair was because he was drenched in blood. Literately drenched in blood. It was in his hair, all over his skin, just everywhere on him. His eyes were a deep shade of dark brown though, and full of wicked humor. There was black paint all over his skin under the blood. In a way, he looked like a voodooist from a movie that the girl had seen before. She was sure he was, in a way. _

_There was a very uneasy moment for the girl as she stared at the man as he ran the blade up and down the girl's mother's stomach, though he didn't cut into her. He was more than caressing her with the blade, who looked terrified for her daughter. _

_The man holding the girl seemed to be trying to soothe the girl though. He had taken a pale hand and stared running his fingers along her cheeks, caressing her with them. "Such a pretty little girl." The cool voice said in a low voice. He even ran his fingers through her hair, making her skin tingle but unpleasantly. She didn't like the way he was touching her. "Such pretty pink hair. Just like her mommy's hair." The man whispered into her ear before he rest his head against hers, looking towards the girl's mother. The little girl could see black hair from the side of her face, though she still couldn't see him. "You came at a very bad time, little one. We were having a little private party with your parents. It's a grown up party. No place for a little child like you." _

_The young man turned his head, looking right into the girl's eyes, who shivered from the way he was looking at her. "I like kids. Maybe I can play with her a little." He said, in a very husky voice. The voice made the girl's body feel icy cold. She didn't like the way he said that at all. His eyes flickered down to the mother though when she started swearing at him under the tape. _

"_No. You've played around enough. Just finish your work now. We'll deal with the girl later. However," The man behind her paused before he tilted his head to the side to look at her. "Little one, are you going to be good and be quiet? If you don't, your mommy is going to be hurt. You're going to stay quiet, aren't you?" _

_Too terrified to disagree, the girl nodded, still trembling violently. _

_So the man removed his hand from her mouth before resting a hand onto her shoulder. "Now, we're going to play a little game, Little One. I'm going to blind fold you and then I want you to count to ten. You can count to ten, can you?" He hissed into her ear, making her shiver. But she nodded and he seemed satisfied. "Good. I want you to count to ten and then when you're done, you're going to say one little word. Finish. Can you do that?" _

_It sounded like a weird game but the little girl nodded timidly as she looked tearfully at her mother. She was terrified to say anything else. She knew that her mother was in trouble and that she was too. But what could she do? She just had to stand there. _

"_Good girl. Now close your eyes." The man hissed into her ear again. The little girl looked at her mother for the last time and did what she was told before felt the man tie a blind fold around her eyes. Then once the blind fold was on, the man placed his thin hands onto her shoulders and turned her around. She could almost feel his breath on her face now. "Now, whatever you hear, do not take the blindfold off. If you do, you will lose this game. If you have to, cover your ears, my little pink haired cutie. And keep counting to ten." He told her. _

_The little girl only nodded as she felt tears squeezing out of her eyes. She could still feel the man's hands on her shoulders but she lowered her head and started the count. "One." She jumped when she heard her mother scream within the tape and it scared her. She almost didn't start counting again but then she felt the cool hand brushing against her cheek again. _

"_Keep counting, my love." The man told her in a soothing voice, though it wasn't soothing at all. _

"_T-two." _

_Another scream came from her mother. _

_Tears were pouring down her cheeks but she didn't move her hands to brush them again. The cold hands of the man before her were doing that. It made her shiver. _

"_Three."_

_Another scream. _

"_F-four." _

_The next scream sounded very weak and it was then the girl decided to cover her ears. She felt her hands smack against the man's hand but he didn't seem angry. He just removed his hands from her altogether, but she knew he was still there. She could still feel his breath on her face. _

"_Five. Six. Seven." _

_More screams but they were dulled from her covering her ears. She shivered but continued. "Eight. Nine. Ten." She paused with a shaky breath. "Fi-finish." She said shaking badly. She made the mistake of taking her hands away from her ears. For there came a sickening sound of something sticky being pulled away from something else. It was a sound she knew from the horror movies. _

_There was a very long eerie silence now. She couldn't hear anything. There were no sounds of breathing, her mother's cries, not even the sounds of the men in her parents' room. She only heard her own little sobs and breathing. For a long moment, she stood there, listening to her sobs. She listened hard to see if the men were still there. But she heard nothing. So slowly, she reached up to the blindfold, waiting for a cold hand to grab her wrist to stop her. Nothing happened. So she slowly hooked her thumbs under the blindfold before she slowly pulled it off. She blinked several times to let her eyes readjust to the light, and expecting to see someone still in front of her. But she didn't see anyone. Slowly, she turned and looked around the room, freezing when she saw what was left of her mother. _

_Her mother was still lying on the bed, covered in blood. But there were ten knives sticking out all over her body and her head had been sheen cut from her head. It had been slammed down on one of the bed posts and was staring wide eyed right back at the girl. _

_It was only then did the little girl scream. _

_It had been a neighbor who had heard her screaming and came to see what happened. But the very moment she had seen the blood on the floor in the foyer, she ran back out and called for the ANBU, the law enforcers of Konoha City. She hadn't even gone upstairs to see who had screamed. And that was where they found the little girl. An ANBU officer had gone into the house to investigate and found the massacre in the master bed room. But more than less, he found a traumatized pink haired girl curled up in the corner, staring wide eyed at the head of her mother. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she just stared, muttering numbers. She kept counting to ten over and over again._

_It had taken a while to get the little girl to tell them what happened. Almost a whole week of trying to talk to her. But after that while, she managed to tell them what she had seen and heard. She told them about the men. _

_Almost a month later, they found the killers. And they had not been the only ones that helped commit the terrible crimes against the girl's family, who were not the only victims. Numerous of people had been horribly killed by them and their band. _

* * *

"_Lord Orochimaru, Head of the White Snake Scientific Foundation," Said the judge of the trial after the one responsible had been caught. "You have been accused of committing murder, inhuman experiments on the people of Konoha City, supported sexual crimes and a very long list of other crimes. We have proof of your evil deeds and therefore you will be sentenced eight years to life in prison. Is there anything that you can say in your defense." _

_The accused, Orochimaru, stood in a black suit with his long black hair tied back, smiling as if he wasn't even worried about his sentence at all. He wasn't the best looking man but he wasn't the most hideous either. He actually had an elegant look about him, almost like a beautiful snake in a human's body. His skin was very rather pale but had a fair look to it. His eyes were an eerie yellow green and had a snake look to them. They were actually on the small pink haired nine year old curled up on a bench, clinging to the side of an ANBU named Kakashi Hatake, who had been the ANBU to find her in her house. Ever since that fateful day, he had been taking care of her. He hardly left her side, especially when she suffered from nightmares. _

"_Lord Orochimaru!" The judge said sharply getting the elegant pale man's attention. "Did you hear what I said?" _

_Orochimaru's thin lips curled into a creepy smile before he lift his head higher. He was actually looking very proud of what he had done and what was he was responsible for. He just let his long black bangs fall over his eerie eyes as they looked back at the pink haired girl, who curled up closer to a glaring Kakashi. "Yes, your honor. I heard you. And I do have something to say. What I have done, I've never been more proud of myself. All I was doing was studying the effects of Jushin, as you know is a voodooist religion, and as you know my partner in this horrific crime was a Jushin priest, which I have heard you have killed him. I learned quite a bit about the religion." He looked the terrified looking girl right in the eyes. "And I can guarantee it, I'm not completely done with the Haruno family. When given the chance, I will finish my research." He stated. _

_The girl shivered and buried her face into Kakashi's side, who wrapped a protective arm around her and glared even harder at Orochimaru. A few other people in the court room were on their feet, yelling threats and showing their complete out rage to the pale man, who only smiled his sadistic smile. _

"_Orochimaru, that kind of threat will only further your sentence. I do not want to hear that remark again. Do I make myself clear? Now, you will be spending your sentence in the Konoha Prison, heavily guarded. Whenever, or if, you have a Pre-hearing, you better have a better behavior than you have now." The judge said before slamming his gavel down to excuse the case. _

_Orochimaru chuckled a rather creepy laugh, making several people stop from getting up. They knew that if he was laughing like that, it wasn't good at all. It was like he had planned this entire thing out. Orochimaru just shook his head as he tilted his head and looked back at the pink haired girl. "Oh, it's not a threat, your honor. It's the plain truthful promise. You better watch my pretty little cherry blossom carefully. Make sure nothing happens to her. Because I can guarantee it. People who admire and worship my very work will not be happy that I have been placed into prison because of the girl. They will try and cause her harm. Even if I do not wish her any harm. Not yet." His head dipped down, allowing his hair to fall around his face. He looked almost too evil as he eyed the girl as if she was something to eat. He even licked his lips as if he was hungry for her flesh. "They will kill her. The Jushin will come after her because of the so called death of their Jushin priest. Protect her well. If anything happens to her, I will not be happy at all."_

_This only brought more rage from the audience. There were many shouts aimed at the tall, pale man, who was just smiling wickedly at the terrified pink haired girl, who clutched onto Kakashi. _

_The judge slammed his gavel down hard until everyone was sure he was about break it. "Order! Order! Officers! Get that sadistic monster out of my courtroom!" He ordered. The officers roughly grabbed Orochimaru's arms and pulled him towards the door to get him out. There were quite a few people looking ready to charge after them to kill the criminal but his eyes were only on the frightened child. "Goodbye, cherry blossom. We shall meet again when you're older." He said his farewell before he was yanked out of the court room. _

_The girl just shivered before clutching tightly onto Kakashi. She had never been so scared in her life. She knew that she was in grave danger. _

* * *

_Orochimaru's threats had shaken many people but he had been very serious about people trying to cause the girl harm. There had been many attempts on her life after that day in the court room. It seemed that Orochimaru in deed had quite a few followers and admirers who were not happy about his imprisonment. A few times, someone ran at her with a knife. If not for Kakashi always being with her, everyone was sure that she would have been assassinated or brutally murdered. It was when someone almost kidnapped her to kill her did the ANBU finally decide that it was time to place Sakura Haruno into the ANBU Protection Program to keep her alive until she was old enough to make sure Orochimaru stayed in prison for the rest of his life. And to make sure that the true killer of Mr. and Mrs. Haruno didn't finish his work on their daughter. For he had yet to be caught for his evil deeds. _

_Therefore, Sakura was moved away from Konoha City, moving place to place to find a place of protection. However, no matter where she went, danger always seemed to follow. _


	2. Chapter 1

**Title: Everything Burns**

**Author: majickworks85**

**Short Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School.**

**Pairings: Saku/Gaa, Nar/Hina, Shika/Tem, Ino/Kiba, Kan/Ooc, Sai/Ooc, mild Saku/Sas, Sas/Kari. **

**Warning: Rated M; for very strong language, violence, rape, and brief sexuality. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters. **

* * *

**Chapter I**

Eight years later

For eight years of her life, Sakura Haruno had been moved all across the land, city to city, school to school. For eight years of her life she had been running place to place under the watchful eyes of the ANBU. For eight years of her life, she was constantly with an ANBU officer, who happened to her father figure since the murder of her parents. For eight years of her life, she suffered from nightmares of what had happened that fateful day that tore her away from her friends. She had been hunted by criminals who worshiped the very ground that that murdering monster and there had been many attempts on her life. She hated her life. She couldn't help it. She just wished that she would die now. She just wished that someone would just kill her and let it be over with. She hated running away.

But as she moved school to school, she began to find means of sanctuary. She began to learn many new things of each place she was moved to. She learned so much that she began to get bored by what she learned in school. But even better yet, she made many friends, knowing that sooner or later she would lose them again.

It was those friends that kept her losing her sanity. Sometimes they weren't the most aspiring friends that her father figure, Kakashi Hatake agreed with. But they treated her with respect and they stood up for her when someone picked on her. If that wasn't just it, she also made a few enemies in school. Because she was quite a pretty girl, there had been quite a few people who didn't like her for her brains or her looks. It was thanks to what friends she made that she hadn't been entirely humiliated in school. Her friends were usually very protective over her.

But after eight years of traveling school to school, Sakura Haruno was now going back to the place she once called home or Hell.

She wasn't exactly thrilled about returning to Konoha City after so long but it was expected. She didn't want to come back to this hell hole. But she didn't really have much of a choice. She went wherever the ANBU Protection Agency sent her. They had decided to send Sakura back to Konoha, due to another hearing for Orochimaru coming up. They had figured that this would be the last one for him. After this hearing, Sakura would get to stop running for her life. This was the very last hearing for him. It would decide if he would be released or he would stay in prison for the rest of his miserable life.

"Sakura, we're home." Came her father figure's calm voice, tearing Sakura away from her book.

The now 16 year old pink haired girl looked up from her book and looked out the window to see the house that Kakashi's silver BMW was pulling up to. The house was actually apart of an apartment complex. All of the apartments were brick red with brown doors and a few windows. It was small but nice looking. Each apartment complex had a small yard in the front and the back.

However, in front of the apartment, Sakura saw a familiar black corvette sitting there and waiting for them. Seeing it, she rolled her eyes and went back to her book. "Oh great." She grumbled. "They're going to be stay with us too?"

The man beside her laughed as he glanced over at her as he pulled up right behind the black car in front of their apartment. He was a handsome man in his early thirties with gravity defying silver blonde hair. He had a pair of mismatched eyes though with a scar running down the left one. His original eye was deep brown, while the other was red and black, a souvenir from an old battle wound he had gotten when he was younger. He usually wore an eye patch over that eye, so that people would stare at it, but he wasn't in the mood to wear it. "Come on, Sakura. They're not that bad. Besides, they're not moving in with us. Like I want to listen to them having a go in the bedroom." He remarked.

Sakura made a face when she heard that come out of his mouth. She knew what he meant. The two that they were speaking about was actually a couple that was secretly dating, other than Kakashi and Sakura knowing that they were dating.

Around them, they didn't care if they knew about their relationship. As a matter of a fact, Sakura preferred her father figure and these two ANBU, Anko Mitarashi and Ibiki Morino over anyone else. They were like the only family she had now after losing her real family. She found the couple rather funny though. Anko and Ibiki were complete opposites from one another, yet they were also the perfect couple. She was wild, brash and not so well mannered while he was quiet, strict, and didn't tolerate pranks very much. He sometimes gave Sakura the creeps with his ways but other times he was really nice to her. Anko absolutely loved Sakura though. She always took her shopping if she wasn't pissing Ibiki off with her wild ways.

"Sakura!! Lame ass!" Anko said cheerfully as she came out of the house and headed towards the two. Sakura smirked when she glanced over at Kakashi, who looked annoyed by the usual nick name Anko called him. "Welcome home, Sakura. It's been a while since you've been here, hasn't it?"

The pink haired girl paused for a moment before she looked away with a sigh. She didn't want to be reminded by it. It had been a long time since she was in Konoha. Eight years had passed since she left this city. And now she was back. And she wasn't entirely thrilled to be back. There were too many painful memories of this place that she didn't want to be reminded of. "Yeah. It's been a long time." She murmured before looking around the neighborhood. She could already see a few nosy neighbors now looking out their windows as a small moving truck pulled up in front of the house. "Can we move in now?"

Kakashi nodded as placed his hand onto her shoulder and steered her towards the apartment to get a look over the building they would be living in until it was time to move on again. Ibiki and Anko went over to the moving truck to start telling the movers to get everything in.

That night, Sakura sat at the dinner table, poking at the meal that Anko tried to cook. Now, she liked Anko for many reasons but her cooking was not one of them. It appeared that the female ANBU officer was skilled in many things, such as kicking a bad guy's ass, assembling a weapon and even diving into a burning building for a kid still inside, but she could not cook at all. She could not cook a meal to save a life, only kill someone with it.

"Sakura, we will need to go through your daily schedule again so that you will know the procedures and such." Ibiki stated as he poked at a blackened lump on his plate. He poked it a few times before making a face and looking up at Anko with a raised eyebrow, who was rightfully eating what she made. Apparently she was enjoying it. It made the others wonder if she even had any taste buds at all. "Anko, what is this suppose to be again?"

The dark haired woman gave him a nasty look before she gave the other two a weird look. They hadn't taken a bite of their food either. So with a nasty curse word, she threw her fork down and stood up. "All right! All right! I'll order in take out! Happy?!" She demanded. But, of course, Sakura and Kakashi didn't say anything. Ibiki, however, just remarked that Anko should have learned how to cook, which immediately turned into an argument.

It was times like this that Sakura would smile at. She hated hearing people argue and fight but she loved it when Ibiki and Anko did it. It was actually fun watching them. It only showed them being a true couple, especially when they started arguing about the most simple things such as what wallpaper should go up on the walls. That had been the funniest fight Sakura watched between the two yet. It had been at their last home, in the Mist Country. They had been remodeling the house that all four of them were staying at. Anko had wanted to get dark purple wallpaper for the walls. But Ibiki flat out said no and tried to get light blue wallpaper. That fight went on for an hour, which later on turned into a make out session for them. That was the only way to rekindle their relationship when they had fights. They would either talk about it or end up having sex in the room. Whenever they started kissing, Sakura knew that it was the sign to get out of there or end up blushing bright red when they started…..'talking things over.'

"Anko, just please call in the Chinese restaurant now." The older ANBU officer said before he turned back to Sakura. "Now then, Sakura. Monday you will be starting your new school year at the Konoha High, which is a very large school." He explained. "The school contains a lot of students from the ages of 13 to 18. There are eight class hours you will be taking. Four are mandatory, such as math, English, science and such. The other four will be your personal choice classes. The grades are from 9th to the 13th grade. The 13th grade is Introduction to College. I know the Principal of the school. She is well aware of your situation so she knows that there are certain precautions that you have to take. Kakashi will be an undercover teacher there, again. So if you need anything……"

Sakura sighed as she turned her face away. She knew what he was going to say. This was the millionth time she had heard Ibiki's lectures. He only told her the same thing over and over every time she started at a new school. "Yeah, yeah. I know, Ibiki. If I need anything, all I have to do is go talk to him. And if there's an emergency, all I have to do is pull out my pager and page you or Anko. And if you guys are too busy, another ANBU officer will come to my assistance. And if all of the ANBU officers are busy, then I'm fucked. I know." She said impatiently. She knew she shouldn't have swore but she was getting annoyed.

The ANBU gave her a very dry look. He really hated her carelessness. It was like she didn't care that her life was constantly in danger. And because they were in Konoha again, it was in even more danger. It was near the prison where her parents' killer was at. "Sakura, you need to take more care in this matter. Especially at Konoha High. There are numerous people who still admire….."

"I know! I know that my life is in danger, Ibiki! You're not the one who watched two fucking psychopaths rape and murder your mother!" Sakura snapped, her emerald green eyes blazing before she shoved herself away from the table. "I know that Orochimaru is in Konoha Prison! I know that the Jashin Clan are here too! I know, I know! Stop lecturing me all the time, Ibiki! And I don't care anymore! I'm getting tired of running away all of the time! I'm going to die anyway! So why bother?!" She said angrily before she turned and stomped out of the room.

All three ANBU officers just sat there watching her as she left the room. They knew that she was getting tired of being lectured all of the time. They couldn't blame her. Not even Ibiki could. He knew that he lectured her too much. But he was just following procedures.

Kakashi sighed as he pushed away the plate of gook and burned food before pulling out an orange book from his jacket. "Ibiki, sometimes you should just be nice to her. It's not helping her nerves. She's scared to death of being back in Konoha. She didn't even want to come back, remember?" He asked, quietly. Ibiki only nodded as he turned his eyes away. "I know. But she needed to. The Pre-Hearing for Orochimaru's case coming up soon." He said quietly right back.

For the next few days, Sakura and her ANBU guardians just settled in the house, getting everything ready for their new short life in Konoha. They had everything set up for their pretend lives and eventually Anko took Sakura shopping at the mall for new clothes and supplies. It did make the pink haired feel somewhat better after moving back to Konoha.

However, there was only one thing that bothered her as she walked down the walkways of the Konoha Mall with Anko. It was the fact that she was seeing friends smiling at one another as they came out of the shops. She watched as girlfriends pushed one another, giggling over hot guys wandering the halls. It made her feel a little depressed that she didn't have a friend, other than the crude ANBU next to her, to laugh and push around with. She had had friends at her old schools too. Some she absolutely loved.

At every school she had been to, she had made a friend or two. But after the last friend, the one in the Wave Country, she decided she wouldn't make friends anymore.

Her last friend, whose name had been Haku had been hurt pretty bad after defending her from some thugs, who had been hired by Orochimaru fans. The two friends had been making their way down the snow covered street, for it had been winter at the time, when they had been attacked. Haku had been stabbed in the stomach and left in critical condition after that incident. If it hadn't been for Kakashi, both Sakura and Haku would have been killed. Haku was still alive today, Sakura knew. But after that incident, she completely kept her distance from people. She didn't want to make friends only to have them get hurt later on.

Though some of her old friends she missed very badly. There were a few of them that she knew that could defend their selves pretty well. They were pretty tough. She would give anything in the world just to see them again.

Monday came a little too fast for Sakura. She wasn't really looking forward to going to school. But she knew that she had to sooner or later. So she got up for the day, took a shower and then got dressed. For her first day, she chose to wear a pair of form fitting black pants with tears at the knees and one at her thigh. As for her top, she wore a black tap top with a blood red rose embroidaried on the front and over that, she wore a short-sleeved, dusty pink mesh top, just so that she could show off her tattoo she had on her left arm. It was of a barbed wire with drops of blood on each barb. It actually looked very real.

Sakura remembered when she had gotten that tattoo, and how angry Kakashi had been when he found out about it. She had been 14 years old and living in the far side of the desert city, Suna City. She had been friends with a dangerous gangster, whom she loved very much and missed the most. They had met almost a month after moving into the city, where she had been jumped by a bunch of jocks. He had been passing by and decided to help her out.

After they became friends, no one dared to mess with her. He had been rather over protective over her and when someone tried to mess with her, they would find their face shoved into the ground. He wasn't exactly the nicest guy, but he had been nice to her. She missed him a lot.

The morning that Sakura was starting high school, she had rode with Kakashi, which he dropped her off in the front before going off to park his car. So she walked towards the front doors of the school, while fixing a long black ribbon she had tied around her head, using it as a headband. She was well aware that people were staring at her. She knew they would have noticed her immediately. Who wouldn't, or couldn't, miss a girl with pink hair walking into the school. She chose to ignore them though.

Sakura went straight into the office to get her class schedule, which she had already signed up for her classes through the internet with Ibiki's help. So she knew what classes she was going to be taking that year. But she still needed her schedule. She walked right up to the secretary, who was staring at her like everyone else.

"Hi. I'm Sakura Haruno. I'm a new student here at Konoha." The pink haired girl said, ignoring the weird looks she was getting.

The secretary gave her dry stare before she turned and started going through files in the drawer next to her. She kept going through them until she finally found Sakura's name. Then she pulled it out and held out a packet towards her. "There's your papers. Your schedule for the first and second semesters, a map of the school and the break hours. You've already been entered in the system so you're all set. All of your teachers knows you're coming in." She told her dryly. Sakura returned the dry look she was getting before leaving to find her locker and her classes. She took out her schedule just to see what it was like.

1st hour: Home Room/Reading

2nd hour: Pre Calculus

3rd hour: English/Adult Literature

4th hour: Human Biology

5th hour: Study Hall

6th hour: Stage

7th hour: Gym/Health

8th hour: Psychology

Sakura studied her schedule before going off to find her schedule. She bit her lip as she went but then went off to find her locker. She knew it was best to put some of her stuff away so that she didn't have carry it all over the place. She could feel eyes on her but she completely ignored them. Once she found her locker she twisted the combination in before trying to open it.

But, it jammed.

Swearing loudly, Sakura tried it again and again. She even spun the combination again. But the results were the same. She sighed before banging her head against the locker next to hers. She didn't want to go through this today. Not on her first day.

Bam! Bam!

Sakura jumped when she heard the fist pound against her locker. She had seen the fist retreat over her shoulder once the locker opened up. With a frown, she turned around to see who just helped her out only to see a very handsome raven-haired man about her age. He wore his hair rather medium length and rugged looking while his bangs hung over his ebony colored eyes. He wore black cargo shorts and a deep blue tee shirt. He was very good looking and it was no doubt he was rather popular in the school. Especially with girls staring dreamily in his direction or shooting her dark looks for even being near him. He looked oddly familiar to Sakura though. She knew his looks from somewhere, but she couldn't remember.

"Hi." The boy said smiling a very good looking smile at him. "That locker sucks. It sticks all the time. You have to pound on it to get it open." Then he leaned against the neighboring locker while tilting his head innocently. "Hi. I'm Sasuke Uchiha. You're new here, aren't you?"

Sakura stared at him for a long moment as she admired his good looks before the name hit her. She remembered that name. She remembered him. They had been in the same classes in grade school. He also had been one of the boys who teased and taunted her about her pink hair and forehead. He also had been the boy who tried to throw a rock at her, to see if he could hit her with it. So obviously, he didn't remember her. But either way, she remembered him, and his brother, who had been her friend when she was a child. If her memory served her right, Itachi would have been in the 13th grade, since there was an extra grade there. So he must have still been at the High School. She wondered if he was there now.

Smiling, Sakura placed her book bag into her locker then pulled out her books she would need for the first two classes. But once she had then, she turned back to the boy, Sasuke. "How is Itachi doing? Is he still going here?" She asked, innocently.

Sasuke immediately frowned, looking as if someone had just slapped upside the head for no reason. He was stunned that she even knew about his older brother. "Wh-what?" He then tilted his head, narrowing his eyes a little. "How do you know Itachi?" He asked suspiciously.

Sakura just smirked coolly at him as she closed the locker door. She only shook her head as she stepped around the raven-haired boy. "Don't worry about it. But when you see him, let him know that his Pink Panther is back. He'll know what you mean." She told him before she started to leave. She felt rather proud of herself that she stunned him.

However, before she could get too far away from him, she felt Sasuke grab her arm, holding her back. "Hey, I'd appreciate it if you didn't walk away from me. Especially when I'm not done talking to you." He said, dryly.

Jerking her arm from his grip, Sakura gave him a very fierce look for grabbing her. She couldn't help herself as she shoved him hard away from her, making him hit the lockers. "Do not ever grab me again. I hate being touched by people." She warned him in a very dark way. "And I am done talking to you, Sas-_gay._ Here's your warning now. Touch me again, and I'll rip your balls off and shove them down your throat. That is, if you have any." She said coldly before she turned and walked away, leaving him slightly stunned along with any other student in the hall. As she walked away, she smiled to herself. She had actually startled someone on her first day. 'Not bad.' She thought before she turned a corner.

**A/N: Just a warning now, I am NOT a Sasuke fan. In fact, I absolutely hate him. So if you are a Sasuke fan, this isn't the best story to be reading. There WILL be Sasuke bashings now and then. **


	3. Chapter 2

**Title: Everything Burns**

**Author: greenphoenix85**

**Short Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School.**

**Pairings: Saku/Gaa, Nar/Hina, Shika/Tem, Ino/Kiba, Kan/Ooc, Sai/Ooc, mild Saku/Saso, Sasu/Kari. **

**Warning: Rated M; for very strong language, violence, rape, and brief sexuality. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters. **

* * *

**~Chapter II~**

Sakura was the first one in her homeroom and was soon joined by a few more people. But she chose to ignore them as she went to sit down in the far back. She didn't want to be close to the front for she knew that if she did, people would probably stare at her. The desk she was sitting at had a drawing scratched into the wood though. It was an amazing drawing of a rose with sharp thorns and blood dripping from them as if they had cut into someone's skin. It even had a demon sitting on the petals looking as if it was asleep. Sakura really liked it so she took a piece of paper and began to copy it by rubbing a pencil against it.

As she was doing so, the bell rang and slowly other students began coming into the class. Sakura glanced up to watch a few before going back to etching the drawing off the desk. She became aware that some students were looking at her but she ignored them.

"Hey! I wouldn't be sitting there if I were you."

Sakura lift her green eyes up again and found a tall pretty girl standing before her. The girl had deep red hair and glasses on the end of her nose. She was no doubt a preppy girl by the clothes she was wearing. A black mini skirt running to just below her thighs and a deep blue halter top with a white sweater covering it. She was eyeing Sakura with a disgusted look, as if she was the ugliest thing she had ever seen. That just made the pink haired girl narrows her eyes dangerously at her, almost daring her to insult her. "Why do you say that?" She asked coolly.

The red haired girl just shook her head as she folded her arms over her curvy chest. "That desk is reserved for only one person. If anyone sits there, he gets pissed. And no one wants to see that happen." She warned her.

"Hmm. Well, I'm sitting here now." Sakura said with no interest at all. She just went back to etching the drawing on the desk.

The red haired girl gritted her teeth before she looked her over and then lift her head. "Aren't you that new girl who threatened Sasuke Uchiha this morning?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. Now that seemed to get everyone's attention in the room. Many students in the room had turned their attention onto the red haired girl and Sakura, watching intensively. Sakura glanced around the room for a second before going back to the drawing. "Yeah. So what?" She asked dryly.

"How dare you?!" Another girl snapped.

Another girl nodded as she stood up and made her way over to Sakura's new desk. "Yeah! Do you even know who Sasuke Uchiha is?!" She asked in a snappish voice.

Most girls in the class were looking angry with Sakura now. Only few didn't. Most of the boys in the class just rolled their eyes and looked away. They didn't want to voice their opinion. Though a few were actually looking annoyed with Sakura too. Obviously, they were Sasuke's friends. Sakura just sighed and looked around at the girls who were snapping at her. "He's Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Damn straight! He's the King of this School! He's the most good looking, most athletic boy in the entire school!" A girl said now dreamily. A few other girls looked as if they were day dreaming too.

Sakura just rolled her eyes as she picked up the drawing, looking it over before putting it into her binder for safe keeping. She just pulled out a book to read until class started again. "Yeah right. He's cute, yeah. But he's nothing but a Princess Boy." She remarked.

Half of the class who heard that laughed heartily at the insult. Most of them were guys who didn't like Sasuke that much. But most of the girls in the room just glared heatedly at the pink haired girl who said that. The red haired girl just lift her head higher with her teeth gritted tightly. But then she smirked icily as she looked her over. "Well, you're no prize yourself, bitch. Who would like a girl with pink hair and a huge forehead?" She asked, smirking.

The room went completely quiet when Sakura's head snapped up and she gave the girl the iciest look that even the room felt cold. A few girls backed away, wide eyed by the look that Sakura was giving the red head. "Call me a bitch again, four eyes, or talk about my pink hair or forehead, and I will buzz cut all of your pretty red hair right off your head and then super glue it to your ass." She said in the most dangerous tone she could manage. "Don't believe me? Go ahead and fuck with me some more. I dare you."

The room was very quiet as most of the students stared wide-eyed at the two girls glaring at one another. Some didn't even dare to say anything to one another, afraid that the stone cold pink haired girl might direct her anger towards them. The red haired girl almost took up Sakura's challenge but then later on decided not to. Instead, she went to her desk with her friends and sat down for the class to start. A few students started murmuring to one another while sparing glances over at Sakura. She was completely ignoring everyone now, just reading her book. She just wanted to left alone now.

However, her wishes was ignored as someone walked straight over to her desk and sat down in the next one. She chose to ignore whoever it was. But couldn't when that person reached over and tapped her shoulder, getting her attention. Sakura lift her head and glared at who decided to touch her only to groan in disgust. "What the fuck do you want now, Uchiha?" She asked Sasuke coolly.

Sasuke just gave her a cool look for the remark but he shook his head as he leaned back in his chair and eyed her for a moment. "To be honest, I would like to take you out on a date." He held up a hand when Sakura gave him a very dark look for it. "But right now, I'll settle with telling you that I delivered your message to Itachi. He's actually looking forward to running into you the halls. Though I wouldn't want to meet him if I were you." He told her.

Sakura just frowned at him as she raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? Why's that?" She asked dryly.

"He's a prick, that's why. One of the biggest assholes in the entire school, that's why." Sasuke said just as dryly. "He picks on people and he's in a gang. He spent most of his school years, here at Konoha, in detention. You'll only ruin your rep." He told her.

Sakura eyed him dryly before looking back at her book. "Yeah? Well, I don't care about reputations or that kind of BS. Nor do I care for your opinion. Now if that's all you have to tell me, I would gladly appreciate it if you went away. Go sit by your fan club or something. Because you're annoying me." She said icily. She was well aware of the cold look that Sasuke just gave her but she didn't care. She could already tell he was one of those pretty boy types who cared about getting into a girl's pants.

"Hey, I'm trying to be nice to you and apologize for the way I treated you in grade school. It was Sake, right? I'm not good at remembering names." Sasuke said leaning towards her. "I just wanted to make it up to you somehow. Why don't we have lunch together some time?"

Again Sakura gave him a dull look as soon as the words were out of his mouth. She was not amused at all by his request. "Why would I want to go out with you in the first place? Especially if you can't even remember my name? My name is Sakura, not Saki. You're making me sound like alcohol." She said.

Sasuke held up his hands. "My bad. Sorry, Sakura." He then smiled as he tilted his head to the side. "Besides, I'm a good looking guy, popular in the school and I want to go out with you. Come on. What do you say? You know you want me. Usually all of the girls do. It'll be a lot of fun." He said as he reached over and placed a hand onto her knee.

Immediately, Sakura lashed out and grabbed his wrist, wrenching his hand away from her leg and bent it backwards where he started wincing. She was no doubt pissed at his antics. "Get the fuck away from me or I will snap it off!" She snapped before practically throwing his hand away from her. Sasuke glared right back at her as he rubbed his hand. It had hurt when she bent his hand back. He looked as if he wanted to say something that would probably unhinge her.

But before he could, someone walked right up to their desks and slammed a backpack down on the desk in front of Sasuke. It sounded like the bag was full of heavy books by how heavy the bag dropped down onto the desk. But it got Sasuke and Sakura's attention nonetheless.

Both looked up only to freeze to see a glaring red haired boy standing before them. He was no doubt a Goth by the way he dressed and looked but he definitely had Sakura intrigued. His hair was the color of blood and gelled to stand up on the ends in spikes. Only a decent spike of red hair hung over the most interesting pair of eyes Sakura had ever seen. They were the color of sea foam and they were glaring right at Sasuke. Surrounding them were thick black rings; no doubt eyeliner. He was wearing a pair of black baggy pants with blood red lines in the hems and numerous pockets. Chains and skull shaped studs hung everywhere on the pants. He wore a black mesh shirt under a black straight jacket, which also had several skull studs all over it. He had a barbed wire necklace hanging around his neck along with a small studded dog collar. There was a jade black crystal hanging from one ear while the other had a bloody skull with a snake coming out of the mouth. However, he was extremely good looking, at least in Sakura's opinion.

Sasuke, however, didn't look amused to see him at all. His dark eyes immediately narrowed darkly and he started a glaring contest with the red head. It even made Sakura a little uneasy by seeing how dangerous the new boy looked. She felt as if she didn't want him glaring at her next. "Oh, wow. You actually showed up, Sabaku." Sasuke said icily.

"What the fuck are you doing back here, Uchiha? Why aren't you up with your fucking sluts?" the red head spoke with a very low voice that even sent a shiver up Sakura's back. Sasuke glared even harder before stood up and had a face off with the Goth, whose eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. There was no doubt a fight going to break out if someone didn't say anything. These two really did not like each other.

"All right, class! Let's settle down now." Came the voice of the teacher as he walked in. "Let's get into our seats and we'll get started."

Sasuke glanced over the red head's shoulder at the teacher before he turned his dark eyes back onto the pair of teal glaring at him. "You're lucky Iruka showed up, Sabaku." He said icily. He moved past him, shouldering the red head hard, who shouldered him right back just as hard. But neither one said another word to one another again. They kept glaring at each other until the raven haired boy sat down, immediately getting flanked by his fan girls, who asked if he was alright. The red head, however, turned his eyes onto Sakura next, glaring at her. She was still staring at him in wonder until she realized he was glaring at her. Only then did she glare right back. "What?" She asked coldly.

"That is my seat. Move it." The red head hissed.

That actually caught some of the other students' attention. They turned slightly to watch, and even the teacher was looking. There was a lot of unease in the room as the pinkette and the red head glared at one another. There was a pause before the teacher moved forward a little. "Ah......um.....Miss Haruno, isn't it?" He asked, sounding a little nervous. Sakura tore her eyes from the red haired boy's eyes and looked right at the teacher. She had a feeling that he was going to try and make her move to a different seat. The teacher glanced over at the red haired student, who was still glaring at the pinkette. "Um, if you don't mind moving to another seat, Miss Haruno, that is Gaara's seat." Iruka said glancing between her and the boy.

Not amused at all, but not wanting to argue, Sakura rolled her eyes before grabbing her bag. "Whatever." She said snappishly before standing up and shooting the red head a dark look before going to the other side of the room to sit down at the other corner. She could feel eyes on her but she chose to ignore them. She just sank down in the chair and slammed her book bag down next to her.

"Um....okay. Let's begin now." The teacher said before starting to give instructions.

However, during class, Sakura could still feel eyes on her so she took a glance around the room, only to see a few people glancing over their shoulders at her. Her eyes narrowed on those who were staring and they were immediately looking away. But when her eyes fell onto the red head, Gaara Sabaku, she found that he was watching her from the corner of his eyes. Actually, more like glaring at her. She glared right back at him before looking back at the book that the teacher had assigned them to read.

After class, Sakura made her way to her locker to put her things away and get her math books, seeing that she had Pre-Calculus next. She really just wanted to skip class but knew that if she did, Kakashi and Ibiki would probably have her head for it. Anko, she knew, wouldn't have given a damn either way. She hated school herself. But either way, she went to her class. She had to grit her teeth tightly when she felt eyes on her as she passed. She wasn't going to even bother with the annoying pipsqueaks.......

Before she got too far down the hall, she heard someone walking behind her, causing her to immediately stop and turn to glare at who had been following her. To her surprise, it was a girl about her age, maybe a few months younger. She was a pretty girl with violate colored hair and strange pearl colored eyes. She was wearing deep purple Capries and a white windbreaker. There was a blush hinted on her cheeks, showing Sakura that she was embarrassed, yet there was a very shy look in her eyes. She was poking her index fingers together, while glancing nervously up at Sakura then down to the ground. "Um.....um....uh....." She stammered, sounding very afraid.

Sakura frowned as she studied the girl before tilting her head to the side. She was somewhat curious of what this shy girl wanted. Was she going to ask her to defend her from bullies or something? Because if that was it, she'd say "Hell NO!!" But instead, she just narrowed her eyes a little and took a step towards the girl, who flinched a little. "Hey. I'm not going to hurt you or anything. Relax. What do you need?" She asked, frowning.

The girl looked shyly into her eyes before looking away again. She seemed to be having a very hard time getting the words out of her mouth. These kind of people were the kind that made Sakura roll her eyes at. But this one....she actually interested the pastille haired girl. "Um....uh.....H-hell-hello." The girl said shivering before blushing. "I....I....um.....I'm.....Hin-Hinata....Hyuga. I.....uh....wa-wanted to in-introduce myself t-to you.....and wel-welcome you to K-Konoha Hi-high. Maybe....maybe invite you to sit.....wit-with me at my table at lu-lunch time. B-but....but if you don't want t-t-to, I com-completely understand."

Sakura blinked a few times in surprised before her face softened a little. She realized that the girl was just trying to be friend with her. In a very shy and weird way. But still, she was trying to welcome her to the high school. She paused for a moment before forcing herself to smile and hold out her hand. "Hi, Hinata. I'm Sakura Haruno. And, I guess it'd be cool if I sat with you." She told her quietly.

Hinata blinked in surprise before her face lit up with happiness. She looked like a child at Christmas time. It almost made the pinkette laugh. "Re-really?! Thank you, Sakura!" She paused as she looked away. "Um….can I ask you wh-what class you have next?"

"Oh." Sakura paused to think for a second before she smiled back at the shy girl in front of her. "I have Pre-Calculus." She told her. Hinata's eyes grew rather bright to hear that. She smiled as she tilted her head to the side, looking impressed. "Wow! You must be really good at math! I'm horrible at it. Aren't you a sophomore?" She asked, curiously. Sakura felt herself smile when she realized that Hinata wasn't stuttering anymore. She seemed to be getting comfortable around Sakura already. But with a shrug, she nodded. "Yeah. I'm all right at Math. It's not my strongest subject. English, Art and

Music is mostly area of expertise."

Hinata looked interested either way. But she decided not to ask right away. Instead, she bit her lip as she glanced away. "What teacher do you have for Pre-Calculus? Asuma Saturobi?" She asked, quietly.

Sakura glanced up at the ceiling before nodding. She even took out her schedule to confirm it. "Uh, yeah. Asuma Saturobi's my teacher. He any good or is he one of those Mathematical geeks who drones on and on about what 2 square equals what?" She asked.

Hinata giggled but shook her head as she twiddled her fingers together. "No. He's one of the best teachers in the school. He actually tries to let the students have fun in his class. From what I've heard, he plays games with Math. Just to keep everyone awake long enough to actually do the work. M-my cousin's in th-that cl-class too." She said, going back to stuttering. Sakura did not miss the hint of fear in her voice at all. She just frowned as she thought about why Hinata was afraid of her own cousin.

_'He's probably a big asshole to her then.'_ Inner Sakura piped up.

Sakura blanched when she heard her Inner. 'Aw, gawds! You're still there?! I thought I'd gotten rid of you a long time ago!' She thought. She could only picture Inner Sakura sticking her tongue out at her and folding her arms in a smug way.

_'Ha! You'll never be rid of me!! Not even that stupid all powerful Psychologist could be rid of the All Mighty Inner Voice of Sakura Haruno!'_

Sakura groaned inwardly and slouched a little. She absolutely hated her inner voice. It was so damn annoying and it loved to piss her off. 'Ugh. Someone just shoot me now.' She thought.

"Um, Sakura?" Hinata's soft voice broke into Sakura's thoughts.

Sakura blinked several times before looking at the slightly younger girl with surprise. "Oh! Sorry. I think a lot about things that sometimes I go into a daze. What did you say?" She asked, feeling a little embarrassed she even got caught up in an argument with her Inner self again. She hated that thing. Hinata just motioned to a door that they had came to. She had a mild smile on her face, but she was blushing too. "This is your next class room." She told her.

Sakura felt her face fall with embarrassment but then she smiled at Hinata and nodded her thanks. "Okay. Thanks, Hinata. I guess I'll see you at lunch then. First lunch, right?" She asked, after taking a glance at her schedule and saw that there was actually two lunch periods. Hinata nodded though as she turned slightly to leave. She paused for a long moment before turning back to Sakura, looking somewhat concerned. "Oh, Sakura. Um, please watch your back around here. I heard that Karin is really mad at you for what happened in Homeroom. She and some of her friends are planning to get you back. Please be careful. And I heard that the Akatsuki has their eyes on you too." She told her.

The pink haired girl just tilted her head curiously. She figured that Karin must have been that red haired bitch from earlier. She swore that if KARIN decided to try and make trouble for her, she was going to give it. She was tired of people trying to push her around. She was going to teach the bitch a lesson for messing with her. Now, as for the so called Akatsuki, she had no idea who they were but if they wanted trouble, she would give it. "Oh. Okay, thanks, Hinata." Sakura only said. She watched as Hinata waved at her as she walked away before she headed into her new class.

The very second she walked in though, the first thing she noticed was that there was a lot of tables all over in the class room. Some were occupied of course, but her eyes went straight to one in particular where there was a very hyperactive blonde bouncing up and down in excitement as he was blabbering on about a concert.

He was a handsome young man about her age. His hair was the golden color of the sunshine and his face was rather boyish. He also had the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen. They must have even put the bluest ocean to shame. However, his face was distinguished by three scratch markings on each cheek, almost like whiskers. She wondered if they were scars or birth marks. She wasn't entirely sure which one it was. He was wearing baggy, deep blue jeans and a bright orange shirt with a face of a toad on it. Something that Sakura recognized from the Gamabunta cartoon, a show about a toad who did a lot of wacky things. She had seen the show a few times but it never interested her. Just by the nature of the blonde boy, Sakura was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to be in this class. He seemed kind of loud and air headed just by the way he was talking to…..

"Gawds, why me?" Sakura groaned when she saw the red haired boy from her Home Room, Gaara Sabaku.

Gaara was just leaning back in his chair while listening to the blonde talking about the concert. His eyes was closed, so he hadn't noticed Sakura come in yet, even though he was facing her. It was right at that moment of staring at him, the pink haired girl noticed something very interesting about him. He had a red tattoo on his forehead on the left side. It was the Kanji word of Love.

"Hey! Aren't you that new girl that tried to rip off Sasuke Uchiha's hand?" Someone suddenly blurted out.

Sakura blinked out of her thoughts and she looked to see who asked that. It was the cute but annoying blonde guy talking to Gaara. When he had spoken up, Gaara had opened his eyes and met Sakura's. He didn't seem amused to see her though. His eyes narrowed at her as he frowned but she returned the look right back at him. If he was looking to playing a glaring contest with her, she would seriously comply if she had to. She didn't even seem to notice that their little glaring contest caught almost everyone's attention. Many eyes were looking back and forth between her and the red head.

Even the blonde had noticed. "Uh……" He muttered before grinning over at Sakura and waving. "So you are the girl that tried to rip of Sasuke's hand, right?" He asked, trying to get her attention.

With an annoyed glance at him, Sakura just walked over to a chair to sit in. "Yeah? So what? You a friend of his or something?" She asked, dryly before sitting down in a chair right behind a guy that seemed to be asleep. She glanced at Gaara again when he growled at her for snapping at his blonde friend, but chose to ignore him. The blonde snorted as he went right over to her desk and leaned against the neighboring desk. "Hell no. I used to be his friend but he's turned into a real big jackass since he started hanging out with the Sound Four."

Sakura looked up at the blonde, wondering who the Sound Four were but she didn't ask. Instead she put her binder down on the table, back up and looked at the drawing that she had etched right off of the desk from home room. "Really?" She asked, dryly.

"Hey! That's one of Gaara's drawing! Where'd you get that?" The blonde asked once he noticed it.

That got Gaara's attention, as well as a few others. The red head turned completely around, frowning as he looked at the binder before his eyes lit up in mild surprise at the drawing he knew he had scratched into his desk in Reading Class. His frown grew deeper before he gave Sakura a very dark look, who actually looked surprised. She glanced at the drawing then back at Gaara. "Wait. You scratched that drawing in that desk?" She asked, not even bothering to hide her surprise.

Gaara just stood up and slowly walked over to look at the drawing she had 'stolen' from his desk before giving her a very dry look. "Yeah. So what? What are you doing with it?" He asked just as dryly as he was looking at her.

Sakura returned the dry look before looking down at the demon sitting on the rose petals. She wasn't exactly sure what to say now that she met the artist he made the drawing. She was somewhat feeling like a thief now, stealing someone else's work. So with a shrug, she told the truth. "I saw it on the desk and liked it. It's really….." She paused trying to think of the right word to actually put this drawing. "Unique. It's definitely something a lot better than pretty little drawings of scenery. You want a picture of a scenery, use a camera. This is real art." She said tapping the picture and looking back at Gaara.

There was a pause as the blonde and Gaara stared at the pink haired girl for a moment before the red head smirked at her. Without another word, he turned and went right back to his seat, sitting down and leaning back into it. The blonde watched him for a second before grinning back at Sakura. "You know, usually he'd punch the person who jacks off his drawings and takes them back. But it looks like he's gonna let you keep it." He then held out a hand to her. "The name's Naruto! Naruto Uzumaki! You're new to Konoha, ain't ya?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the blonde but there was a hint of a smirk on her face. She hadn't intended to make any friends but already two people were trying to befriend her. "Sakura Haruno. And I'm not looking to make any friends. Sorry. Oh, and ain't isn't a word." She told him before turning away from him and staring out the window. She could almost see the stunned look the blonde no doubt had on his face. She didn't even bother to look at him again. Instead, her attention was only out the window, staring out into the yard of the school. She knew a bunch of people were probably staring at her.

"Naruto!"

That got her attention. She turned her eyes back to the front where a man, obviously the teacher, just walked into the room, while chewing on the end of a cigarette. Seeing it just made her crinkle her nose in disgust. However, his very person was interesting. He was probably in his late twenties, with black hair and handsome face. He was a little rugged looking but still, he was no doubt popular with the ladies. He wasn't even wearing a suit or a school outfit as teachers usually did. He was wearing baggy black jeans with a large black shirt, the sleeves rolled up a little and a green vest over it. He didn't even look like a teacher.

And he was glaring at the blonde, annoyed by his very presence.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be in class?" The teacher, Asuma Saturobi asked, his arms folded over his chest.

Naruto winced as he grinned sheepishly at Asuma while rubbing the back of his neck. He was no doubt trying to come up with an excuse about why he was there. "Uh, well, I want to learn Calculators. Can't I stay in here?" He said grinning.

In the room, there was a lot of thuds as several heads hit the desks and here were a lot of groans. Sakura was one of them who dropped her head onto the desk at the blonde's idiocy. The boy sitting in front of her groaned before sitting up and looking wearily at Naruto as if he was the biggest idiot. He just yawned and propped his head up on his hand as he just looked lazily at the blonde. "It's Pre-Calculus, Naruto, not Calculators. Just go to class now, you idiot, and let me sleep in peace." He groaned.

Sakura took the time to look this boy over and noted that he wasn't a bad looking character either. A little shady and lazy looking but he was actually kind of cute. He had long black hair which he pulled back tightly at the back of his head. It almost made the pinkette snort when she realized his head resembled a pineapple. He was wearing baggy black jeans with and a black tee shirt that said, 'Say No to stupid people.' He had a small chain hanging around his neck and silver hoop earrings in both ears. There was a seriously tired or bored look on his face, almost as if he didn't even want to be there.

Naruto just gave the boy a dry look before giving him a rude gesture with a finger. "Shut up, Shikamaru! So I got the name wrong! So what?!" He grumbled.

The boy, Shikamaru just grinned lazily at him as he just slumped in his chair while the teacher and a few others rolled their eyes. Asuma Saturobi just sighed and shook his head before pointing at the door. "Naruto, just go to your own class now. I'll give you a late slip but just stop coming here." He said before pulling out a small yellow paper and writing on it. Naruto just groaned and walked right over to him, taking it from the teacher. Then he slumped right out of the room, while a few other students snickered. Sakura just rolled her eyes and looked out the window again.

"Well, I see a new face among my victims." The teacher stated, getting her attention again. "You must be Sakura Haruno. I got word about you from Ms. Tsunade. Glad you could make it and welcome to Konoha High. Now, this is usually the part where you stand up and introduce yourself, and say something a little interesting."

Sakura gave him a dry stare before looking away. She didn't want to answer his little request. She could feel many eyes on her, and she hated it. She wanted to snap at everyone for staring at her but chose not to. She just wanted to think to herself. She was only thankful that the teacher didn't push because he turned away from her and started the class. By the end of class, Sakura had changed her mind about Asuma being _"Ass-uma." _She had enjoyed the class for his creativity of turning math into games. They started off with filling out Multiplication charts, only the basic numbers went up to one hundred. After that, he let everyone play board games like Shoji, Go, and Chinese checkers.

Once 2nd period let out, Sakura headed straight to her locker to get her things for 3rd, which she found to be English/ Adult Literature. She was actually looking forward to this class. She had always been good at English. She liked writing all sorts of things; stories, poems and even random stuff. She did a lot of dark poetry, always writing about her past and how lonely she was. Sometimes it worried Kakashi about some of her writings, even if they were written in beautiful words.

Sakura just sighed as she went to her locker and started to spin the combination when the hairs on the back of her neck started to stand up. She grew tense before slowly turning around only to get shoved against the lockers. Now glaring, she turned sharply to glare at who just shoved her against the wall only to come face to face with a very angry looking blonde and that red haired bitch from earlier, Karin.

The blonde, however, looked a little familiar to Sakura. She wasn't sure who she was, but she did remind her of someone she might have known. The girl had gorgeous long blonde hair falling all the way down to her waist, though it was pulled up into a tight pony tail. Her eyes were a violate color, yet sharp as ever. She was wearing a cheerleader's outfit with the letter C on the front, obviously meaning she was the Captain of the Cheerleaders. She was very pretty and it was obvious she was desired by many guys because there was a lot of grinning idiots looking at her. But her eyes were glaring right at the pink haired girl in front of her.

"So," The blonde began, very coolly. "You're the new girl who insulted Sasuke Uchiha, and then tried to break his wrist."

Sakura frowned at her as she leaned against the lockers, still very angry that this girl even had the gull to touch her. More or less, just shoved her into the lockers in the first place. She felt really laying it on this bitch. But instead, she straightened and folded her arms, mocking the girl's very stance. "Yeah, so what?" She asked just as coolly.

The blonde just gritted her teeth and took a threatening step towards her, jabbing a finger right into Sakura's face. "Let me tell you something, you pink haired freak! No one, and I mean, no one insults Sasuke Uchiha! Nor does anyone touch him! I also heard that you've managed to get his attention, that he wants to date you! But listen up, Forehead! Sasuke Uchiha is mine! Got that?!" She snapped.

"Hey!" Karin exclaimed, indifferently. The blonde shot her a dark look before looking back at Sakura.

Sakura just rolled her eyes as she pushed herself off the lockers and stepped off to the side so that she couldn't get shoved against the lockers again. She wouldn't rather hit the lockers again. "Yeah, yeah. You can have that Pretty Boy Princess. 'Cause I don't want him."

"Hey!" The blonde snapped, very dangerously at the insult but then she stiffened and stepped back with surprise. She looked almost as if someone was threatening her. Even the Sasuke fangirls stepped back, looking very tense. Sakura didn't know why they were looking at her like that.

That is until an arm draped right over her shoulder and another one wrapped around her waist, pulling her against a solid chest.

"You heard her, Yamanaka." Came a perky male voice. "You can keep that dumb, chicken ass, Sasuke. And you can tell that to him too. Because Sakura belongs to us, yeah."

Sakura grew very still when she heard that voice. That was a voice that she hadn't heard for a very long time, two years tops. She hadn't heard it since she lived in the Rock Country. Slowly, she turned her head around and met a pair of sky blue eyes. The young man she was starting at was rather handsome for someone who sort of looked like a girl. He had long blond hair pulled tightly on top of his head with long bangs hanging over his left eye. It was his right arm that was around her shoulders. But it wasn't him who had an arm around her waist. So slowly, she turned her head the other way, only to meet a pair of ebony black eyes.

For a moment she thought it was Sasuke Uchiha but realized that it wasn't. This guy actually had long black hair that he had pulled loosely back with long bangs hanging over his eyes. His young boyish face was almost just the same as she remembered it, only he was older and much more handsome. But none the less, she knew him.

"It-Itachi? Deidara?!" She found herself gasp.


	4. Chapter 3

**Title: Everything Burns**

**Author: greenphoenix85**

**Short Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School.**

**Pairings: Saku/Gaa, Nar/Hina, Shika/Tem, Ino/Kiba, Kan/Ooc, Sai/Ooc, mild Saku/Saso, Sasu/Kari. **

**Warning: Rated M; for very strong language, violence, rape, and brief sexuality. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters. **

* * *

**~Chapter III~**

The first sound she heard was a squeal, only realizing that it was herself before she spun completely around and threw her arms around Itachi and hugged him tightly. She couldn't believe that it was him, but she was happy that it was. She felt his arms encircled around her and hug her right back. Deidara had removed his arm before tapping her shoulder. "Hey, Sakura. I get a hug too, right, un?" he asked, grinning at her. Sakura pulled away and looked right at him before she smiled brightly. She remembered Deidara very well. He had been her best friend while living in Iwa City and had always liked his wise-cracking way. He was sarcastic and could be a little crude but she loved him for it anyway. He always found a way to make her laugh. He had been her breath of fresh air in Iwa. So she was definitely happy to see him. She hugged him just as tightly as she had hugged Itachi.

"Hey! I better get a hug too!" came a very familiar voice from behind Itachi and Deidara.

Sakura blinked as she pulled slightly away from her blonde friend, and looked over his shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw a very tall and large built 13th grader she knew only a year in a half ago. She had known him while living in the Mist Country, that is until he entered a Student Transfer Program. He was wearing almost the same type of clothing as Itachi and Deidara was wearing; dark baggy jeans but a dark blue muscle shirt under a black leather jacket with a red cloud on it. He was an unusual character with such pale skin that it looked almost blue. His hair was dark with a tinge of blue in it, not including the blue dye he had put in it. It really was blushish-black and his eyes were very dark, yet they had a tinge of yellow in them. In truth, they reminded Sakura of a shark's eyes. Actually, HE reminded her of a shark. That was why she called him……

"Sharkie!!" Sakura cheered as she threw herself into his large arms.

Kisame Hoshigaki jus laughed as he picked her up and gave her a very tight hug. He was grinning a rather sharp toothed smile at her as she smiled brightly up at her. He sure looked happy to see her as much as she was happy to see her. "Hey, Cherry Blossom! Didn't think you'd see me here, did'ja?" He asked, still grinning.

Sakura slipped down from his arms now looking very astonished. Her smile was somewhat faded yet she had a look of wonder on her face as she looked from Kisame to Deidara then to Itachi then repeated her actions. She kept doing it while the three guys grinned at her. She was actually very astonished to see her two best friends from Iwa and Mizu City. She wondered what in the heck they were doing there and why they were there. It was then Deidara looked over her shoulder and grinned as he folded his arms. He actually looked very smug as he tilted his head to the side. She frowned and almost turned to see what he was looking at until she froze as two slender arms wrapped around her from behind, pressing her against a thin but rock hard chest. She grew tense and tilted her head to look behind her, only to see blood red hair.

The first thought going through her mind was, 'WHY IS GAARA SABAKU HUGGING ME?!' but then she saw who it really was.

Sakura whirled around and looked up at the red haired angelic face smiling at her. He was a very handsome, angelic sort of person but anyone who actually knew him knew that he was far from being an angel. His hair fell around his sweet face in auburn locks and his soft hazel colored eyes gazed softly into Sakura's emerald green orbs. It was a face that she had known for quite a while, and had been one of the one people that picked her right up and put her back on her feet when no one else would. Since the death of her parents and being moved around, he had been her first friend since Itachi.

"Sas-Sasori?" Sakura whispered with disbelief.

Sasori Akasuna just smiled softly at her as he pulled her closer into his arms and looked down at her. He didn't look surprised at all to see her, though in truth he was. When he heard from Itachi that Sakura Haruno was now at Konoha High, he spent most of the morning looking around the entire campus for her. "Hi, Sakura." He said with a purr.

The pink haired girl just blinked a few times before she smiled brightly and threw her arms around him, burying her face into his chest. She had tears in her eyes but she was doing well to keeping them hidden from him. She knew that Sasori didn't like it when she cried. The last she had cried it was when she was leaving Suna City, moving away because of the usual threats to her life. She remembered that last day when she cried, Sasori had made her swear that she would never cry again. "Sasori!" She said brightly.

Then once it settled into her mind, she pulled back with a jerk frowning again and looking at him just as stunned as she had with Kisame and Deidara. She turned slightly in his arms and looked around at her four best friends several times before she drew back, astonished. "What in the hell are you all doing here?! I know Itachi is from Konoha City but you three?!" She asked, not hiding her surprise at all.

Both Kisame and Deidara grinned while Itachi and Sasori simply smiled. They were definitely amused by her reaction. They even glanced at one another, as if they were thinking the very same thing. But it was Kisame who decided to tell their pink haired friend. "Student Transfer Program. Dei-Dei, Sassy and I entered the transfer programs at our old schools and this was where they sent all of us."

"Problem is," Itachi added in a quiet tone, though amused. "That was a year ago and they still haven't gone away. They decided to stay here and bug me."

Kisame barked with laughter and lightly shoved Itachi, who ignored him. Deidara just snickered while Sasori merely shrugged. The red haired 13th grader just turned his eyes back onto Sakura. "To be honest, when we first met each other, we really didn't get along very well. Deidara was always annoying Kisame and getting threatened to get beaten up by him. Even Itachi threatened him a few times. I didn't mind him very much because I found his art only a little interesting." Sakura only smiled knowing that he was talking about Deidara's clay art. "But then we all seen a picture of you with each one of us and we started talking about you. Itachi explained that you were from Konoha and that you two had been very close friends as children." Sasori explained to her.

"Then we all just clicked, yeah!" Deidara jumped in with such enthusiasm. "We all just started hanging out, talking about you and then eventually we started up the Akatsuki!"

Sakura just smiled for a moment as she took in the information before her eyes widened in surprised at the word, Akatsuki. She remembered that Hinata had warned her about them. It just brought a huge smile on her face. "Hinata Hyuga told me that you had your eyes on me. What, you going to cause me trouble or something?" She asked, teasingly as she lightly pushed Sasori's arm.

"Hyuga, eh? Oh! Yeah! That quiet girl of the Hyuga Clan!" Kisame said grinning. "She's cute but too shy. So she warned you about us, huh?" He had a devious look in his eyes at the sound of this.

Sakura gave him a mock look of warning as she lightly jabbed him in the chest. "You be nice to her, Kisame. She welcomed me when a lot of people started treating me like shit. She and very few people. Some guy named Naruto, maybe some Gothic jerk named Gaara. "

At that very name, both Kisame and Deidara started laughing hard while Sasori smirked. They seemed to have found a joke in what she had said. There was definitely something funny about what she said otherwise they wouldn't have looked like she was telling a joke. None of the five friends even seemed to notice that several people were still standing around them, watching them as if they were crazy. The blonde girl and Karin were still glaring at Sakura, looking very offended that she wasn't paying attention to them. But finally, they got fed up. "HEY! STOP IGNORING ME, YOU STUPID FOREHEAD GIRL!!" The blonde snapped.

That got their attention.

Immediately a sharp, angry tick appeared on Sakura's temple and she whirled around to glare at the one who said that, her emerald eyes falling on the blonde. All four of her guy friends started glaring at her fiercely. They were not happy at all of the insult that the blonde had just thrown out at their pink haired friend. Sakura just narrowed her eyes sharply at the girl before her. "What, you blonde bimbo?!" She demanded.

The blonde cheerleader just glared harder at her while folding her arms over her curvy chest. She looked like a drama queen to Sakura. "I said stop ignoring me! We were talking before this cross dressing idiot came around!" She said motioning to Deidara more than the other three. She didn't want to upset Itachi, Kisame and Sasori. She was very well aware of their reputation.

Of course it didn't stop them from all of the Akatsuki from glaring at the preppy bitch. Deidara was glaring harshly at her, several sharp ticks on his forehead as he rose a fist and started shaking it at her. "I AM NOT A CROSS DRESSING IDIOT! JUST BECAUSE I LIKE HAVING MY HAIR LONG AND IT'S PRETTIER THAN YOURS, DOESN'T MEAN I'M A CROSS DRESSER!!!" He bellowed at her in rage.

The blonde girl just crinkled her nose before she grabbed her long pony tail and began running her fingers through it in a seductive way, while smirking at him. "Your hair? Prettier than mine? Ye-ah, right. I can guarantee it, girly boy, that the entire school would vote my hair being the prettiest." She even gave Sakura's pink hair a look of disgust. "It's definitely better than bubble gum colored hair. Karin and I are the most beautiful girls in the entire city." She said smugly.

Sakura opened her mouth to say something very vile when a sudden memory popped into her head. She stopped herself from saying anything as her eyes widened in surprise and she stared at the blonde. It even caught their attention on the way she was staring at the cheerleader captain. "Wait a second…….Ino?" She asked, frowning in confusion.

The blonde's smug smile was gone now as she looked surprised. She frowned at Sakura, wondering how in the hell she knew her name. "Uh. Yeah. That's me. Who the hell are you?" She asked, smartly. Sakura's eyes lit up with realization before she smirked and folded her arms. "Oh, my god. I can't believe it's you. Since when did you ever turn into a huge frigid bitch, Ino Yamanaka?" She asked, smirking.

Now everyone, even the four Akatsuki friends stared at her with surprise. They wondered if their friend even knew the blonde in front of them. Ino, however, just stared very hard at Sakura, looking as if she was trying to think of what in the hell she was talking about. She was quiet for a long moment before her eyes flashed and grew very wide in shock. "Cherry?! Sakura Haruno! You're Sakura Haruno!" She gasped as she stepped back from the pink haired girl.

Sakura smiled as she lift her head a little higher. "Glad you remembered me then." She remarked.

Before anyone actually knew it, Ino was squealing very loudly before she threw herself forward and nearly tackled Sakura to the ground. Many bewildered people just stared wide-eyed at the two girls now sprawled out on the ground, one being crushed within a hug while the other was looking very excited.

"Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!Ohmygod!!! I can't believe it! Sakura!" Ino squealed before climbing off of the pink haired girl and staying knelt beside her.

Sakura pushed herself up and gave the blonde a very weirded out look. Her eyes were still a little wide with shock at the way Ino had managed to tackle her. She was very aware that Ino's friends were staring wide-eyed and jaw dropped at the scene before them. They couldn't believe that one minute Ino was glaring at the pink haired girl with hate and now she was squealing with happiness, acting as if they were both best friends. What they didn't know was the latter. Or at least they were.

"Okay. Breathe, Ino." Sakura said, drawing back from her old childhood friend.

Ino did so, though she was more like hyperventilating and waving her hands in front of her face while bouncing up and down on her knees. She was beyond excited. "Sakura! It's been so long! Where in did you go?! What were you doing?! Why did you leave without telling me good bye?! Why DID you leave?!" She demanded excitedly.

Sakura shuddered at the excitement coming from Ino. She couldn't believe how energetic she was. She was worst than she remembered. "Ino, would you please stop talking so fast and just let me answer one question at a time?" She asked dryly.

Ino was immediately on her feet, grabbing Sakura's hand and yanking her up. "Sakura! Now that you're back, we can go back to where we started! We can be friends again! Man! I definitely need to give you a makeover because, black? Ewwww! I mean, you don't look bad in black but seriously! You need to get into light colors!" She said brightly.

"Ino! What the heck?!" Karin screeched, her hands on her waist.

Both Sakura and Ino turned to look a very angry looking red head, along with the troupe of Sasuke fangirls. They all looked as if someone was playing a very bad joke on them. They had been expecting Ino to humiliate the new girl who, in their opinion, was trying to steal their precious Sasuke. But instead, she was hugging the pink haired girl right after she just got done insulting her.

"What, Karin? I can't be friends with my old best friend?" Ino asked, dryly as her eyes narrowed at Karin. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous of my girl, here. Sakura and I go waaaaay back. I was her first best friend." She even sounded very proud as if it was true.

Sakura, however, crinkled her nose as she glanced over her shoulder to see a very annoyed looking Itachi giving Ino a very cold look. She knew very well that he wasn't amused by the preppy blonde. Especially when it was he who had been her first best friend. And now, she was trying to claim something that wasn't exactly true. So Sakura quietly grabbed Ino's arm and peeled it right off of hers, surprising the blonde. She just kept a stoic look on her face as she backed up right into Itachi, yet gently set her back against his chest while folding her arms. "Actually, Itachi was my first best friend, Ino. You know that. He defended me from his own brother, who tried to crack my head open with rocks because of my big, wide forehead." She said, trying to remind Ino of her insult just now.

Ino made a face as she eyed Itachi dryly before she smiled sweetly and placed her hand onto her waist. "Sakura, Sasuke isn't like that anymore. He doesn't throw rocks at girls for their defaults anymore."

Sakura's eyes flashed angrily when she heard that. "Defaults?" She asked, dryly.

Deidara snorted as he rest his elbow on Sakura's shoulder and applied only a little weight on her as he tilted his head the other way. "No, Sasuke actually tries to get into their pants now a days, yeah." He said darkly.

Kisame nodded in agreement as he folded his arms over his brawny chest, looking at the girls with dislike. "And if he tries it with our Sakura, he's a dead guy." He added. Sakura merely glanced up at her two old friends before frowning as she shifted her weight.

Ino just shot Deidara a dark look before dropping her arm at her side. Her violate-blue eyes looked right into Sakura's, trying to smile. "Sakura, dear. I know Itachi Uchiha is hot and all, babe, but you really shouldn't mingle with him. He's nothing but a trouble maker and he's always causing such a fuss for our dear Sasuke. Now, if you're going to be hanging out with me again, you're going to have to hang out with the right crowd. Now, come with me. You can sit with me at lunch and then we'll go to the mall and do some serious shopping, seeing that your fashion trend needs a little work." She smiled brightly as she gave Sakura a sparkling smile that could rival a model's. "So what do you say? Drop the gang bangers and come hang with me and the girls."

"Over my dead body." Sakura immediately answered very coldly.

That just made Ino's eyes widen in surprise, as did her girl friends. They all looked shocked that the pink haired girl even dared to deny Ino Yamanaka. The hall was exceptionally quiet as all eyes stared at Sakura. Then Ino's eyes narrowed a little as she gave the pinkette a look of warning. "What did you say to me?" She asked, carefully.

Sakura lift her chin up higher and folded her arms over her chest. She had a look of defiance in her eyes. She knew that she and Ino had been friends when they were kids but by the sounds of it, her old friend had turned into quite the snob over the years. And Sakura despised those kind of people. Especially when they had the gull to insult her friends right in front of her. "I said over my dead body. I will choose who I will hang with, when I will hang out with them, and I will choose what I want to wear. So if I want to wear all black and look like some poor excuse Emo kid, I will. I know we were friends back then, Ino, but times have changed. I have changed." She sounded rather cold as she said all of this. "In fact, I came to this stupid school, with no intentions of making friends. Old or new. I have too much to worry about right now as it is." She said, giving her four old guy friends an apologetic, who were looking at her just as surprised as Ino was. "Sorry. But now I'm going to be late for class. So I'll catch you guys later."

With that, she got into her locker, grabbed her books and was out of sight before anyone could actually register what exactly happened or what was said.

After the incident in the hall, Sakura marched right into her next class, without sparing anyone a glance. She was pretty sure that she had stunned her Akatsuki friends with what she had said, but she meant every word. She didn't want to make any friends while being at Konoha. She couldn't bear the thought of losing them again just because of her troubled past. She knew for a fact that her heart couldn't take it anymore. Not after what happened to Haku in her last home. She refused to go through it again.

So with her head down, she entered her English class and sat down in the back. Sakura didn't even take the time to look around the class room to see who was in it. She just sat down in the far back, in a corner and opened her small black notebook to scribble in. She ignored the voices of the other students. She could definitely hear that loud mouth, Naruto somewhere in there. But she didn't look up to see where he was at.

But then she felt eyes on her. She didn't want to look up to see who was staring at her. She was sure that a few people were staring at her. However, the feeling of eyes on her very person began to feel like an itch to scratch so she lift her head up a little and let her eyes trail around the classroom.

There were quite a few people in the classroom actually. Naruto was entertaining a few others with a funny story while trying to balance himself on the edge of his desk, only to come crashing down onto the floor. Half of the class burst into laughter while the girl, Hinata was immediately bent down beside him, trying to see if he was okay. A rugged boy was laughing the loudest while bent over him. His dark brown hair was spiked up in all directions, giving him a very wild look while there were two triangular markings on his face. He was wearing dark green pants and a black tee shirt under a black leather jacket. Next to him, there was a large boy munching on potato chips while Shikamaru Nara was leaning against his back, looking as if he was sleeping while standing up. Another boy was sitting in the desk behind Naruto's, looking very enthusiastic for the day. His hair as shiny black and styled into a bowl cut with the thickest eyebrows Sakura had ever seen. He was wearing forest green pants and a lighter green sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his forearm. Next to him, stood a girl with dark brown hair pulled up into two buns on her head and dark eyes were watching Naruto with amusement. She wore black Capri and a pink Chinese styled halter top.

And then Sakura's eyes fell onto the last of their number, the one who was staring right back at her.

Gaara Sabaku.

He was leaning up against the wall, next to one of the windows and with his arms folded over his chest. He looked as if he had been standing there all day. He had been watching his wacky blonde friend standing on top of the desk, trying to act out his little story when he saw a flash of pink near the door. Immediately his eyes flickered over to see the new girl, Sakura Haruno enter the room. He frowned when he saw the moody look on her face. She looked very sour, possibly more sour than he ever did in this good for nothing high school.

But after staring at her for a brief moment, and getting her attention, Gaara heard the door open again and a familiar voice caught his attention, pulling it away from the new girl. His eyes flickered back over to the door and his brow furrowed when he saw his cousin walk in with his three trouble making friends.

Sakura had looked away the very moment that Gaara did and turned her eyes onto the obvious voices of the Akatsuki. She also became very aware of how quiet it just went because they entered. Even Naruto shut up. All eyes had turned onto the four Akatsuki gang members, who scanned the room for a brief second before they spotted her in the back.

It was Sasori who lead the way towards her, looking a little stoic while being watched by the other students of the school. Itachi was right behind him while Deidara was trying to hurry towards her. But he ended up getting yanked back by Kisame, who was growling around the room at the other students. "What're you looking at, runts?!" He growled, making several jump and quickly look away.

"Sakura." Sasori said as soon as he and the other three approached her. He bent down beside her, while she looked away with a distant look on her face. Itachi went around to bend down on her other side, while the other two sat down on the desks next to her and in front of her, looking at her with concern.

"You guys need to get to class. The teacher will probably be here soon." Sakura said in a quiet voice. She refused to look up at her.

But Sasori really didn't give her that choice because he reached up and gently took her chin into his hand, making her look at him. He gave her a concerned look while ignoring the other students watching them. "Sakura, it's been nearly three years since we saw each other. Almost four. You've never pushed me away before. Now what's wrong?" He asked her quietly.

Sakura just stared into his eyes for a moment before looking away again. "Like I said to Ino, Sasori. People change." She then looked up when Itachi placed a hand onto her arm, getting her attention. He didn't have a concerned look on his face, but it was a look as if asking her to confide in them. "You can tell us about it later, if you wish. But don't push us away, Sakura. We've all missed you." He told her too quietly so that the other students couldn't hear them. Sakura felt the corners of her lips lift up a little. She couldn't help it. There was always something about Itachi, Sasori, and even Deidara and Kisame that she couldn't frown at. They had always had the power to make her smile, no matter how much she didn't want to. Her smile didn't go un-noticed. The four guys had seen it and it made them smile right back.

"So, Pink Panther!" Kisame said in a loud voice, forcing her to look up at him. He grinned down at her before slamming a fist into his other hand. "If anyone bothers you, even that pansy, Sas-gay, come tell us and we'll deal with them!" He spun around and pointed around the room at all of the classmates, while grinning evilly. "Do you hear that, runts?! Mess with our girl here, and you're all dead!" He then pulled back as soon as his eyes spotted a glaring red head standing against the wall. "Oh! Except you, Gaara. You're cool!"

Sasori lift his head a little higher and turned to look across the room at the other red head, who looked somewhat like him. He smirked when they met each other's eyes before he turned back to Sakura. "Sakura, don't let anyone push you around. Especially Gaara." He grinned when he heard a growl from across the room. He stood up and turned back around, giving the red head a tantalizing grin. "You better be nice to her, Gaara. You may be my cousin, but I won't let you scare her like you scare the rest of these idiots." He told him.

"Shut up, Sasori." Gaara growled at him, but there was an amused look in his eyes.

Itachi stood up and gave everyone in the room a cool look before patting Sakura on the shoulder. "Take Kisame's words to heart, Sakura. If anyone messes with you, come to us. We WILL deal with them." He said, adding a cool edge to his tone. There were several shivers in the room as everyone. Many of the students looked away as if afraid to meet his dark gaze.

Sakura watched with a small smirk as her four friends gave everyone a warning look before they turned back to her, smiling softly at her. She just shook her head at them, as if silently scolding them for their behavior. She had desperately missed these four. They were like her pillars of strength while living elsewhere. They'd probably be her pillars of strength here too. She knew she could depend on them if she needed them. But to think of what happened to Haku happening to them….it brought a sour taste to her mouth and her heart clenched again. She looked away again. "Get out of here, you guys. You're going to get me into trouble." She said, trying to sound amused.

It seemed to work.

Because Deidara bent over her desk and grinned at her while placing an arm around her shoulders. "Babe, you don't know how much trouble we're going to bring you, yeah. All ya gotta do is give us trouble right back, yeah!" He said with a challenge.

Sakura snorted as she gave him a fiercely determined look. "You want trouble, Dei-Dei, I'll give it to you." She remarked right back at him.

"Good!" Deidara said grinning more fiercely before.

Itachi then turned away from her, yet glanced over his shoulder at the pinkette. "Sakura, we'll see you later." He told her quietly before he lead the other four right out of the room. Sakura just smiled to herself before glancing around the room, to see several people staring at her with wide eyes. Including Hinata. With a dry look now on her face, the pinkette turned her eyes away from them.

It was nearly a half an hour later and everyone was starting to wonder where in the hell the teacher was. From what Naruto blurted out loudly, he should have been there forty-five minutes ago. And just hearing that, Sakura's face fell as she stared up at the clock. She was starting to get the idea of who the teacher actually was. There was only one person that would be so late.

Eventually the door was slid open and in came the very person she had expected.

And there went flying a book from her hand in her agitation, shocking everyone in the room as she stood up to throw it. The book sailed right Kakashi's head, which he simply ducked. He knew that Sakura had been in that class. He had been expecting something getting thrown at him. He knew his pink haired ward too well.

"You are late, Kakashi!!" Sakura bellowed fiercely. "What's your lame excuse this time?!"

Kakashi gave her an innocent smile as he rubbed the back of his neck, while shrugging. "Well, I found this pussy cat in the hallway and it was lost. So I tried to help it find its way to its own class, only then did it grow wings and flew right out the window." He tried as an excuse.

Many students in the room sweat dropped as they stared at their new English Teacher while Sakura glared hard at him. They couldn't believe this guy. Not only was he extremely late, he just had to come up with very lame excuses. But with a frustrated sigh, the pinkette sank back down in her seat and folded her arms. "You are so lame, Kakashi." She muttered, loud enough for him to hear.

"I know. But you know you love me." Kakashi said grinning at her, and ignoring some of the wide eyed looks he and his ward was getting. Instead, he whipped up a marker and began writing on the white board. He wrote his full name before whirling around and smiling around the class. "Sorry, I'm late, class. I am Kakashi Hatake, your new English and Literature Teacher. As you might have guessed, I am acquainted with your new classmate, Sakura Haruno. You're probably all wondering why, but I'm not going to tell you. Instead, I have your first assignment for the day." He leaned casually against his desk and folded his arms. "Everyone, please take out a piece of paper and you are to write about yourselves. I want to know all about you. Tell me who are you, what are your dreams, your desires and your hobbies. And what do you want most out of life? Once you are done, I will be pointing out a few of you and you are to read out what you have written. After that, you will be hand it in so I will be able to read them later on."

There were a few groans, while other students looked rather skeptical. They weren't entirely sure if they were going to enjoy this assignment. Sakura rolled her eyes with a smirk. She had done this assignment before while in Thunder Country when Kakashi was the 'English Teacher' there. She knew very well what Kakashi wanted written down. It was more than likely that he was going to ask her to talk about herself in the classroom. He always did that. So she decided to be sarcastically honest.

Once fifteen minutes passed, Kakashi decided to get started. He pointed directly at Sakura, while grinning a devilish smile. "Sakura Haruno, why don't you start?" He said, before folding his arms.

Sakura gave him an annoyed look but then she smiled bitterly as she glanced around the room. She knew he would have done this. He always made her go first. It was just him teasing her. "Okay." She picked up her paper and gave Kakashi a sly smile, which made his fade a little. "My name is Sakura Haruno. My dreams is to make a certain person stay in prison and maybe get the Death Sentence. My desires is none of your business. My hobbies is burning Kakashi's boxer shorts or his stupid pervy books. And what I want out most out of life? Well, seeing that I'll might be dead soon after coming back here, I don't want anything but to get it over with." She said then she turned sharply away, looking at the wall.

Many jaws fell to their chests in shock while a few just frowned as they watched her. Kakashi, on the other hand, just sighed softly as he watched his young ward before shaking his head. He would have to talk to her about it later. He knew she was still a little touchy about coming back to Konoha. And he personally didn't blame her. Especially when the Jashin Clan was there still, waiting for the right time to get to her. He remembered the message he had gotten from Ibiki about threats already being made about Sakura coming back. So with low sigh, he forced a smile and pointed at someone else. His eyes caught sight of a blood red haired boy sitting in the far back on the other side of the room from Sakura and was staring over at her with a frown on his face.

Gaara hadn't stopped watching her since she even came into the classroom. But now, he couldn't tear his eyes away from her. Not after what she just said. He, like many other people, were pondering over Sakura's words.


	5. Chapter 4

**Title: Everything Burns**

**Author: majickworks85**

**Short Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School.**

**Pairings: Saku/Gaa, Nar/Hina, Shika/Tem, mild Saku/Saso, Sasu/Kari. **

**Warning: Rated M; for very strong language, violence, rape, and brief sexuality. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters.

* * *

**

**~Chapter IV~**

The day felt way too long for Sakura. She spent most of the day just staring out the windows, not really listening to the instructors. She didn't even care for anyone watching her, for she knew that she was being watched. She just thought about when this nightmare was going to end. She wondered how soon it would reach the Jashin that she was back in the city and how soon they were going to come swooping down on her. She couldn't help but feel a streak of fear shiver right up her back. She knew that it just had to be soon.

After Kakashi's class, Sakura was quickly out the door knowing that he was going to try and hold her back to talk to her about what she had said but she really didn't want to hear it. So she was out the door before he even had the chance to call for her.

Immediately, Sakura went to her next class, which happened to be Human Biology. She was so not looking forward to this. She hated science, not that she was bad at it. She was actually very good at it. There had been at one time that she dreamed of being a doctor in her future. She wanted to help people recover from illnesses and such. But after her life was torn apart by Orochimaru and the Jashin priest that had been helping him in his inhuman criminal experiments, she gave up on the idea that she would ever become a doctor.

The teacher was a very kind young woman who must have been right out of college. Her name was Shizune. She was very kind to Sakura, greeting her warmly and welcoming her into her class. Then they went on into the lesson. That class, however, Sakura just stared out the window.

After Biology, it was lunch time.

Sakura had almost forgotten that she was supposed to eat with Sasori, Itachi, Deidara and Kisame. She had too much going on through her mind at the moment to actually remember. So when she went into the cafeteria and grabbed whatever mess they were serving, she didn't even notice anyone creeping up behind her. That is until someone grabbed her food from her and another grabbed her, lifting her up on a large brawny shoulder. She immediately froze up, thinking it must have been the Jashin finally coming to get her. That is until she heard Kisame's booming laughter as he carried her to the table where Itachi and Sasori were sitting with a few others.

"Kisame!" Sakura yelled furiously, now kicking at him for scaring her. "Don't do that! You know I hate it when people grab me!"

Kisame just laughed with Deidara as they walked her over the Akatsuki corner, ignoring those who were staring at them with surprise. It had been Deidara who grabbed her food from her. They just placed her tray down on the table right between Itachi and Sasori when they both moved over for her to sit between them. Kisame dumped Sakura into the chair before moving to sit on Itachi's other side. Sakura, blushing furiously, just glared at him before looking up at Sasori, who gave her a charming smile.

"Glad you could join us, Sakura. It seemed to me that you have forgotten about your date with the Akatsuki." He remarked softly.

Again, Sakura blushed before looking around the table at who else was sitting with them. She felt a pinch of annoyance when she saw Gaara was also there. It seemed to her that they were making it a habit of being around each other. But next to him was a pretty but very rough looking blonde haired girl and a slightly younger boy with dark brown hair. The blonde was somewhat a Goth like Gaara. Her thick blonde hair was pulled up into four different pony tails behind her head while she wore dark eye shadow and deep purple lipstick. She had her ears pierced almost four times each ear with three hoop earrings on each ear while the fourth pair were tiny fan shaped earrings. She wore a lavender halter top and tight black leather pants, while on her arms were curved armlets.

The dark haired boy was somewhat a gangster looking kid more than a Goth. His dark brown hair was just as wild and messy as Gaara's was and he did have a pretty handsome face. He wasn't as good looking as Gaara was, but he was still a little bit of a heart throb. He wore black baggy pants and a black tee shirt with the design of a hand flipping the bird. It was more than likely he got into a lot of trouble wearing those kinds of shirts. Sakura could see black and blue lines trailing up and down his arms from his fingers and it took her a moment to realize that they were tattoos. It seemed that the tattoo trailed up his arms and to his back. The pinkette couldn't help but wonder what exactly tattoo he had done onto his back.

But without taking another pause, she looked on to the other people around at the table. There was a pair of 13th graders among them, a boy and a girl, which was obvious that they were together because the young man's arm was around the girl's shoulders. She was a gorgeous young woman, though, no doubt Gothic like Gaara and the blonde girl. She had dark hair that seemed to be a shade of midnight blue and gorgeous blue eyes, which seemed rather bored. She also wore a white paper flower in her hair, without a care in the world. She had dark blue eye shadow over her eyes and she wore dark blue lipstick. But she was so beautiful. She wore a black mesh shirt with a black tank top under it and a black skirt that ran to her knees. She also wore the same jacket as Itachi and the others.

The girl's boy was a very handsome looking man, yet he was strange as it was. His hair was a brilliant orange color while his eyes were unusually red swirled eyes. Sakura couldn't tell if they were contacts or his real eyes. But unlike everyone else, he had piercings all over his face. It was very unusual to see so many but in a way, all of the piercings looked good on him. He wore black silk shirt and black slacks with the additional black leather Akatsuki jacket.

Sakura's eyes then trailed to two others, who were just as unusual as the other two. One had dark green hair while his eyes were a strange gold-amber color while he seemed to have painted his skin with black and white paint. He too wore all black with the Akatsuki jacket.

The next was a very badly scarred man. He had scars all over his very person while his hair and eyes were black as night. He wore a black muscle shirt, showing off several black lined tattoos all over him. The tattoos were exactly like strings and stitches. He had such a cold look on his face though. It looked like he was never a happy person. There was a thin silver chain around his neck with a small dollar sign pendant hanging on it. So he obviously had a thing for money.

"Oh, that's right. You don't know everyone." Sasori said softly, making Sakura look at him again with a questioning look. He just gave her a soft smile before motioning to the two beside Gaara. "Sakura, those two are Temari and Kankuro Sabaku. They are Gaara's older siblings. Temari is a senior here while Kankuro is a Junior. As you are, Gaara is a Sophomore." He gave her a lazy smile. "I don't know if you actually are aware, but they are my cousins."

Sakura blinked in surprise. She hadn't known that Sasori had any cousins. Well, she should have guessed. She knew that he must have had a family. Everyone did. But she had never guessed that he and Gaara were related. Still, in a way, Gaara and Sasori did look somewhat alike. But not to be rude, she nodded to Temari and Kankuro, acknowledging them.

The blonde just smirked at her, giving the pinkette the idea that she was a tough girl. "S'up, girl." She said with a sharp tone, though she looked somewhat friendly in a tough way.

The guy, Kankuro, however grinned at Sakura while his dark eyes looked her over. He was obviously looking her up, which made her stiffen. He even gave her a wink, as if flirting with her. "Hey, beautiful. How about we trade phone numbers?" He asked, in a cocky and over confident tone.

Like a few others, Sakura gave the Junior a dark look. She had noticed how Sasori's smile was no longer on his face and he was giving his cousin a look of warning. That look she had seen before. It was a look that she had seen on Sasori's face before he beat the living shit out of someone for annoying him. So to avoid Sasori getting into trouble for beating someone up, she flipped Kankuro off. "Piss off, asshole." She said savagely.

Kankuro, however, laughed and winked at her. "Name the place and the time and I'm there." He said before having to duck as Deidara threw a roll at his head. He didn't go too far before Temari slammed her fist against his head. He only yelped and covered his head whining at his sister for being so mean.

"Hem." Sasori cleared his throat before motioning to the boyfriend and girlfriend. "Sakura, meet Konan and Pein. They are obviously together. Don't be too concerned about Pein though. He's nicer than he looks." He said, chuckling. Pein gave him a cool look but Konan smiled gently at Sakura, giving her a feeling of welcoming. Then Sasori motioned to the last two. "And those two are Zetsu and Kakuzu. Be careful of them both. Zetsu is friendly to limit but he tends to bite people when they annoy him and he's easily annoyed." He moved closer to Sakura, lowering his voice. "I think he's a cannibal." He said in a teasing tone. Sakura couldn't help but smile on the way he said that.

Zetsu now glared at him.

"As for Kakuzu," Itachi added quietly. "Don't ever ask to borrow money from him. He's a greedy asshole. Only two things are important to him. Cash and Money, which as you know is the same. So don't ever get any loans from him. He'll throw a fit if you don't pay back the very next day after you borrowed the money."

Sakura could only smile slyly around at the people surrounding the table. She had to admit it, but her old friends made some unusual friends, their selves. Still, in a way, she felt as if she belonged to this group. She had never felt as welcomed as she did now.

"There's only one who's not here yet though." Deidara said, leaning on the back of Sakura's chair, lazily. "He's always late. I think he's either praying at his damn locker or he's trying to get into some babe's pants. His name is Hidan, by the way."

Kisame nodded as he looked over at Sakura, who was frowning at the idea of someone praying. "Yeah, he's got a dirty mind and an equally dirty mouth. Out of all of us, he swears the most. He's also the oldest out of us. He should have graduated from High School a while ago but he keeps fucking around and coming back. I think it's the fact that there's a bunch of high school girls here. If he bothers you, let us know. Or at least let Pein deal with him. He's scared to hell of that guy. Everyone knows that." He said tossing his thumb over to the stoic orange haired 13th grader, who didn't look like he would agree with Kisame at all.

"Everyone," Sasori spoke up motioning to Sakura with a lazy smile. "This is Sakura Haruno. She's a very close friend of mine, as well as Itachi, Deidara and Kisame. Be nice to her, all right? She's our Pink Panther." He told them. Everyone at the table just nodded to Sakura, who looked down at her food, somewhat bashful at meeting so many people at once.

"So, Sakura," spoke up Itachi, getting her attention. "How is your first day going so far?"

Sakura merely shrugged as she poked at the mound of mashed potatoes on her tray. She wasn't too sure what to say about her day. "It's all right. Most of my classes are boring. Though I had a little fun throwing a book at Kakashi's head. You all remember Kakashi, right?" She asked, though there was a hint of a smile on her face.

All four; Sasori, Itachi, Deidara and Kisame grinned at Kakashi's name. They obviously did remember him and somewhat liked him. They had met them while being Sakura's friend at their own high schools or whatever schools they had gone to. Each of them remembered the man who served as Sakura's father figure. So each of them nodded.

"Hey!" came an unfamiliar voice from right behind Sakura, making her tense up. "Who's the fucking hot babe?!"

Slowly, Sakura turned her head to look at who just walked right up, only to freeze.

The young man standing over her was no older than twenty years old and handsome to a fault. He had a very gorgeous male's face, much like how her other guy friends were. He somewhat looked like a model. His hair was platinum-white blonde and his eyes looked strangely violate colored, though they just added onto his gorgeous looks. He wore a slightly open black button up shirt, showing off well built chest and black baggy pants being held up with a black leather belt, with a strange pentagram on it. He also had the black leather Akatsuki jacket. Around his neck, he had a pentagram hanging on a black leather cord.

It was this man that made Sakura freeze with alarm. He looked so familiar. Where had she seen him before? For some reason, he looked exactly like the man who had raped and killed her mother. And seeing the necklace around his neck, she saw a quick flash back of the man covered in blood. He had been wearing a necklace just like it.

The pendant was a sign of the Jashin religion.

Incidentally, Sakura threw the chair back as she quickly rose to her feet and accidently knocked a few cartons of mild and bottled soda over. She didn't pay any mind to them but had heard several shouts as some of the liquid spilt all over the place. She didn't even see how confused and alarmed her old friends looked. Her emerald green eyes were only on this now confused man, who had caught her chair from hitting him when she scooted it out so quickly. She looked at him with fear, and that was what confused him the most.

"What the hell, girl?! What's your fucking problem?!" he demanded.

Sakura just slowly shook her head as she continued to stare at him with fear but then flinched a little when she felt Sasori's hand fall onto her shoulder. She couldn't help but jerk away from him before bolting from the room. "Sakura!" Sasori and a few of the others called after her but she completely ignored them.

Sakura had ran through the entire school and eventually bolted from the school. She did not want to be there anymore. Not if that guy; Hidan, was it?, was Jashin. It just terrified her to the core to think that he was Jashin. She felt her self control just shattering as she ran from the school, not caring on where she was going. All she knew that she was going away from the high school. She eventually found her way into the park, where she sank down on a bench and curled up into a ball. She couldn't believe of terrified she had been just by seeing that guy. It couldn't have been the same guy who murdered her parents. That man was dead. And it had been eight years ago. Still, he could have been some kind of relation to the murderer. She shivered violently as she drew her knees so close to her body and stared towards a duck pond, watching the birds.

She knew it was a matter of time before that guy figured out who she was. If he really was Jashin, it was more than likely he would try and kill her. He couldn't be any different from the other Jashin who had tried to take her life before. With a shaky breath, she just buried her face into her knees and felt the tears starting to trail over the rims of her eyelids. It was a matter of time before she would be killed, just like her parents. 'God, why did I have to come back here?' She thought bitterly.

* * *

It was nearly dusk by the time she had returned home. She hadn't realized exactly how long she had been sitting on that bench and how the time flew by. She knew for a fact that when she got home that Kakashi would probably swoop down on her and scold her for leaving the school without permission, more or less, even leaving without his consent. She knew for a fact that he was going to be pissed.

Her suspicions became very clear as she found herself standing at the gate of the house they were staying at when she saw Ibiki and Anko's car in the front. She winced knowing exactly what was coming. Ibiki was worst than Kakashi by ten times. This wasn't going to end well.

Sighing, Sakura walked right up to the front door and went inside. The very minute she stepped into the house, she was immediately confronted by the three of them; Kakashi, Ibiki and Anko. All three looked furious at her. Though the silver-white haired ANBU was more relieved. He yanked her into his arms, hugging her tight while Ibiki glared at her. "Sakura Haruno! You scared the hell out of me! What were you thinking about not coming straight home from school?! Why didn't you wait for me like you were suppose to?!" Kakashi immediately demanded as he held her close to him before pulling away and glaring down at her.

Sakura just looked away from him, not knowing what to say. She just pulled her hand from Kakashi's and rubbed her arm somewhat sheepish. "I'm sorry, Kakashi. It's just…." She was saying.

"Sorry is not good enough, Sakura! You know how dangerous it is for you to be wandering around without one of us with you!" Ibiki started on her, seriously. "How are we suppose to do our job when you refuse continually to ignore our standard procedures and put yourself in harm's way?! Every time we have to go through this, what we say goes in one ear and out the other! Do you want to die?!"

Sakura flinched under Ibiki's harsh words but then turned her fierce green eyes onto Ibiki, giving him a very nasty look. "Yes, Ibiki! I want to die!" She screamed at him, making him and the other two blink in surprise. "I just want to get this over and done with! I'm going to be murdered anyway, so why don't just finish me off for Orochimaru and the Jashin?!" She breathed heavily before yanking away from Kakashi and backing away towards the stairs. "I never wanted to come back to Konoha but you mother effers keep dragging me all over the place! And now…..now….I'M HERE! I CAME BACK BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS!"

There was a long silence as all four stared at one another, frowning. Kakashi took a steady breath before moving forward and reaching for Sakura. "Sakura, we didn't want to bring you back. But once you attend the upcoming hearing for Orochimaru's release, you will……"

"Kakashi! You really think that Orochimaru is the one I'm most worried about?! It's not him that has me terrified out of my wits!" Sakura screamed at him, not placing her foot on the first step to go upstairs. "It's the Jashin! And now! I'm going to school with one of them!" She then bolted up the stairs, tears flowing from her eyes, leaving three very startled ANBU. Kakashi, Ibiki and Anko looked at one another a little frantic. They didn't know what she was talking about but they would find out soon enough.

* * *

Morning came way too soon for Sakura. She woke up feeling somewhat groggy but she took a very hot shower to help wash it all off. She knew that she had to go to school but she couldn't shake the fear of the Jashin coming after her. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to see that Hidan guy today. She didn't know what she would do when she did. She didn't even have a clue of how she was going to face Sasori and Itachi, much more the others.

The drive to Konoha was unusually quiet between Sakura and Kakashi. Neither one spoke to each other as they rode together. Kakashi would glance over at Sakura, very concerned for her. He knew that she was scared of facing the Konoha public and he couldn't blame her. So he would arrange a minor meeting between her and the principal. He thought it would be best to meet her. He wasn't sure when the best time was though. He knew that Sakura would be annoyed with it later on. But he really thought he should meet Tsunade.

Upon getting to the school, Sakura was immediately out of the car and hurrying away without a word to Kakashi. She wasn't in the mood to say to him right now. She was still angry at him but she also felt guilty for making him worry about her so much. She knew he was trying his best to keeping her safe.

Sakura went straight to her locker, since she had left all of her stuff there in the first place. She cursed herself for missing out on the other classes. She was pretty sure that she had homework that she was suppose to hand in that day. But now she didn't have anything. Could the day get any worst?

"Hey, Sakura." Came the very voice that she did not want to hear.

A sharp tick pulsing on her temple, Sakura turned around and glared right at Sasuke Uchiha as he leaned against the locker next hers. He was giving her his usual suave smile, trying once again to win her heart. She was really getting tired of him already. "What do you want, Uchiha? I am so not in the mood for your right now." She growled at him.

Sasuke merely shrugged, looking innocent. "Well, I'm in the mood for you, beautiful. Say, why don't we…..?" he was asking.

"Sasuke Uchiha! Are you seriously that naïve?! Can you not get a fucking hint?!" Sakura snapped at him as she glared at him. "I don't like you nor will I ever like you! You are not my type and I really don't want a fucking boyfriend as it is! So why don't you just go curl up in a corner and die already?!"

Sasuke glared at her, not amused at all. He was not used to rejection at all. But with a very cold look at her, he pushed himself off the locker and moved closer, dipping his head low. "All right. Let's get something straight between us, Haruno. I am Sasuke Uchiha and I get what I want. And right now, I want you. Babe, you can keep on rejecting me all you like but sooner or later, you will be mine. Got that?" He said coldly, while she just glared hatefully at him.

WHAM!

A fist slammed into the locker in between Sakura and Sasuke, making them both jump and jerk around to see who had just interrupted. But they both froze to see the serious looking Hidan, giving Sasuke a very dark look. He looked as if he was looking forward to beating the hell out of the pretty boy. "Let's get something fucking straight, Sas-_gay_. Fucking bother her again, and I'll sending you to the fucking hospital! Got that?! Don't you fucking go threatening her again or I'll plant my fucking foot up your fat ass!" The white haired man said just as coldly. "Now fucking beat it, or I might just take up my threat."

Sasuke gave him a very cold stare but chose to listen. He, like many others, knew better than to mess with Hidan, more or less any of the Akatsuki members. So with a glance over at a nervous looking Sakura, he shrugged and backed away. "You should have taken my offer. Now you get to deal with the dickweed." He told her before turning and walking away.

Sakura, however, shook her head before turning to bolt away but she yelped when Hidan grabbed a hold of her shoulder, pulling her back and trapping her against the lockers. She looked up at him with a little fear, expecting a threat towards her, or just death. But Hidan gave her a cold stare as he kept her pinned against the lockers, ignoring any who might have been staring. "Now, it's our turn to get something fucking straight. I know who the fuck you are, Sakura. And I know that you have some fucking messed up issues with my religion. In my opinion, I don't fucking blame you for being terrified out of your god damned wits of me. But let's have it out and say that I have got nothing against you or what happened back eight years ago. My fucking brother got what he deserved and so did that sick fuck, Orochimaru." He growled at her.

His words struck Sakura rather stunned, making her freeze with confusion. She stared at him, stunned. He knew who she was. He knew about her past with the Jashin and Orochimaru. But did he just say what she thought he said? "Bro-brother?" She squeaked.

Hidan bobbed his head once. "The fucking pervert who worked with Orochimaru. He was my fucking older brother, got that? He was always a dumbass to follow around that fucking science loving idiot. And look where it got him. He's fucking dead because he tried to run for it. In my opinion, good fucking riddance." He then released her and stepped back to give her more room. "Now, I'm a real ass and hard to get along with but you are my fucking friends' friend and they really fucking care about you. So let's fucking start over." He stuck out his hand towards her. "I'm fucking Hidan, Junior Jashin priest and I don't give a fuck what the rest of my fucking clan thinks about you." He told her.

Staring uneasily at Hidan for a very long time, Sakura slowly reached up with a somewhat trembling hand and took his hand. She knew that this was very risky to be even making acquaintances with a Jashin but…..he did seem to be somewhat friendly in his own brash way. "Sa-Sakura Haruno." She murmured.

"Nice to fucking meet you, Sakura Haruno." Hidan said grinning down at her before dropping her hand and folding his arms across his chest. "Now can we fucking be friends because I'm getting real tired of Sasori, Itachi, Deidara and Kisame fucking demanding of why the hell I scared you. They've been bugging the hell out of me since yesterday about how I knew you." He shook his head when Sakura stiffened. "Don't fucking worry. I didn't tell them shit about you. They don't have a fucking clue why my Jashin clan hates you."

Sakura sighed with a little relief before looking back into her locker and pulling it all out. She was still very uneasy about being so close to a Jashin, but she had sensed some peace from him. He might have been rude and had a dirty mouth but after shaking his warm hand, he didn't seem so dangerous. "It's going to take little while before I can trust you, Hidan. You've got to realize something. Your clan put me through hell, got that?"

"Yeah. Don't I fucking know it?" Hidan said, now leaning against the locker where Sasuke had just been and making a sour face. "You think I haven't heard all of the big bad stories about you? A bunch of the old geezards at the Jashin compound have been saying, 'Sakura Haruno, the little bitch who killed Mammon, my brother, should die because she didn't fucking surrender her soul to the fucking God of Death that we fucking worship.' Feh! In my opinion, they're a bunch of fucking rejects who just don't shut the hell up." He said nastily.

"God of Death?" Sakura asked somewhat uneasy by the way he said that.

Hidan rolled his eyes before looking into her eyes. "Come on, babe. Everyone has to worship something. Or at least believe in something. We fucking believe in the guy who takes care of all those souls that die." He remarked dryly.

Sakura shivered at his words but felt some relief of what she was learning. She had always wondered about the Jashin, always wondering what kind of religion they were. But the sound of it, they sounded kind of evil. "So….you guys are…..um, evil?" She asked, uneasily. She was sure it would offend him.

But Hidan gave her a sadistic grin as he looked right at her. It was that kind of look that scared the living hell out of anyone. "You know it, babe. We all can't be fucking good doers. There has to be some bad guys in the world. It balances out the world. Good and evil. Light and Darkness. Whatever you want to fucking call it. I'm not an incredibly evil dude. I just do whatever the fuck I want. It pisses off the Old Man back at fucking home, but I really don't give a fuck. Yeah, I'm Jashin. But I don't go around kidnapping people and stripping their skins off their bodies whenever I fucking feel like it. Me? I'm into booze and chicks!" he said, now grinning seductively at Sakura.

For once since meeting Hidan, Sakura felt her mouth curve upward and she gave Hidan a sarcastic smile. "Don't get any fucking ideas, Hidan. You're cute, but you're not that fucking cute." She said, imitating his voice.

Hidan only grinned at her before grabbing her book bag once she pulled it out. "Guess I got to try harder, eh?" He told her.

"Try all you want, babe. It isn't going to work." Sakura stated to him matching his smirk and closing her locker door. Hidan just barked with laughter before walking with her down the hall. He seemed to really start liking this pink haired girl.

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait on this next chapter. I had this chapter written down but somehow it got deleted on my computer so I had to rewrite the whole damn thing. **


	6. Chapter 5

**Title: Everything Burns**

**Author: majickworks85**

**Short Summary: Eyewitness to a murder, Sakura enters a protection program and gets moved around to schools to avoid a dangerous criminal and she finally comes to Konoha High School.**

**Pairings: Saku/Gaa, Nar/Hina, Shika/Tem, Ino/Kiba, Kan/Ooc, Sai/Ooc, mild Saku/Sas, Sas/Kari. **

**Warning: Rated M; for very strong language, violence, rape, and brief sexuality. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of its characters.**

* * *

**~Chapter V~**

Sakura found that things grew a little easier for her now that she made an acquaintance out of Hidan. She couldn't really count him as a friend, due to the fact that he still made her feel a little uneasy. She found him very friendly, yes. Rude, yet friendly, but he was still one of the Jashin and she had spent the last eight years of her life running place to place in fear from the Jashin. Them and Orochimaru's followers. She just couldn't wait till the Hearing for Orochimaru's Release or Confinement was over. That way she would know when she was going to die.

However, she was finding it way too hard in not making friends. Her old friends were the most difficult people when it came to leaving her alone. She had come to Konoha with no intention to make friends but the Akatsuki, Naruto Uzumaki and even the Sabaku; two of them anyway, would bug the hell out of her into hanging out with them. Especially the girls, Temari Sabaku and Konan.

The day right after Sakura made peace with Hidan, Temari had came looking for her right after Biology and dragged her to the lunch room, to where the Akatsuki were sitting. And of course, Gaara was there, not that she hadn't seen enough of him in the first three hours of class. As soon as she was pulled into a chair in between Sasori and Itachi, almost all of the cheerful people of the group, surprisingly Naruto too, bombarded her with questions with how she knew Hidan, why she had reacted the way she had and such as that. It made Sakura feel a little uneasy and she really didn't want to talk about it. To her luck, Sasori and Itachi had saw how uncomfortable she was getting with the questions so they told everyone to back off, even they were curious too. They both figured that if Sakura wanted to talk about it, she would tell them on her own time.

So instead, Temari tried a different approach into finding out more about Sakura Haruno. She started asking her questions about what she really liked or disliked. What was her favorite foods? What was her favorite color? What about her favorite flowers? What did she like to do on the weekends? Those sorts of questions.

With a defeated sigh, she decided to answer, knowing that they wouldn't leave her alone about it if she didn't. She shook her head as she thought about the questions asked. "Okay. My favorite foods is Western Skillet, which Deidara is to blame for me to like." And it was true. Western Skillet was a spicy dish of noodles, meat and vegetables mixed together (ooc: really, it's delicious.) "I also have a thing for cherries. My favorite color is red....." She paused grimacing as she thought of blood. "But I also like sea-green. I can't really say what my favorite flowers are. I love flowers as it is. Roses, lilies, daisies, whatever." She thought for a moment as she tried to think. "I really don't do anything on the weekends. My guardian is kind of an ass and doesn't really let me out too much. But I just like to hang out." She told everyone.

All the while of explaining of what she liked, Konan was messing around with paper, twisting and turning it while listening to Sakura. She smiled as she mentioned flowers and once she was done talking, she held out something. To Sakura's surprise, it was a paper rose. It even had thorns on the stem. "It's for you." She said softly.

"M-Me? Why is it for me?" Sakura asked as she took it carefully, still looking very astonished.

Konan just smiled at her and leaned against Pein, who was smirking himself. He seemed to know why his girlfriend gave it to the pink haired girl. "I like you, Sakura. You're like a rose. You're sweet. I can tell by just looking at you. Plus I've asked Sasori and the guys about you. They said that you're not only sweet like a rose, but you also have your own thorns." She told her.

Sakura looked surprised but glanced around the table at the others, who were either smiling or nodding their agreement. Of course, Gaara wasn't doing anything but looking uninterested as he drew something into a sketchbook. It seemed that everyone was agreeing with Konan. The pink haired girl bit her lip softly as she looked at the rose. "But....you don't really know me." She stated.

"There's plenty of time to learn about you, Sakura. Don't worry." Temari said grinning at her.

Though Sakura wasn't too sure about that. There was only a month to go before Orochimaru's trial and she was pretty sure once it was over, the Jashin or the sick scientist's followers were going to be there, ready to kill her. Hidan seemed to have guessed that was what she was thinking because he smirked and leaned his head back. "Don't you fucking worry, Sakura. No one's going to be bothering you while you're here. The Akatsuki will fucking make sure of that." He told her.

Of course, Sakura caught the hidden meaning under his words. While everyone else thought he was talking about the students at Konoha High, he was talking about the Jashin, itself. She felt as if he was swearing to protect her from his own clan. Feeling slightly touched, she gave them a faint smile. "Tha-thank you." She said, trying to hide the emotion she felt. She mostly directed it to Hidan but everyone smiled either way. She actually felt a peace settling over her because of these guys. "Thank you very much."

"Hey, why so emotional, Pink Panther?" Kisame asked grinning at her as he rest his arm on the table. "We're your friends. Friends protect friends, right?"

"Yeah! Friends protect friends! We always look after one another!" Naruto bellowed cheerfully, getting a few irritated looks from the others. They weren't too keen that he was even thinking about hanging with them. But they all knew it was because of Gaara that he was there. Still, Sakura smiled, feeling grateful towards the whole lot of them. She actually felt safe.

However, Naruto then pointed at her arm, looking directly at the barb wire tattoo she had there. "Hey, Sakura! Where'd you get that cool looking tattoo? It looks awesome!" He said brightly.

Sakura frowned for a second as she looked down at her barbed wire tattoo on her arm before looking over at Sasori. She wasn't surprised to see him with a smug smile on his face. She knew he remembered the day she had gotten it done. He had been with her actually. He had even paid for it to get done. But with a shrug, she motioned to Sasori as she turned her eyes back onto Naruto. "I had it done in Suna City. Sasori helped me get it." She told the blonde.

"Sasori?! You helped her get a tattoo?!" Temari asked skeptically, her nose crinkling a little.

Sasori merely shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal at all. He just kept his smug smile on his face as he rest his arm on the back of Sakura's chair. "Yeah. So what? I helped Kankuro get his. What's the big deal?" He asked lazily.

Temari gave him a dull look but didn't reply. Sakura, however, perked up in her chair a little as she looked over at Kankuro, noting how she could see the strange tattooed strings on his arms again. She had almost forgot about his tattoo. "You have a tattoo? What is it?" She asked, interested.

Kankuro just grinned at her before he began pulling at his shirt. Some of the others just rolled their eyes as they watched him pull off his shirt but once it was off, they looked away when their were several squeals in the cafeteria room. A few girls had been watching and when he took off his shirt, they got a little too excited. It only made the pervert grin more as he gave them a wink. But turning his eyes back onto Sakura, he stood up and turned around to reveal his tattoo. To Sakura's surprise, there was a puppet tattooed onto his back. A puppet controlled by strings. But this wasn't just any puppet. It was a creepy looking one. It had wild looking hair and a pair of creepy black eyes while it seemed to be made out of wood, ink wise, anyway. It was wearing a shaggy cloak while its strange stringed arms were crossed. But on the arms, protruding from them were sharp looking blades, looking ready to slash something. And of course, the puppet's strings lead all the way up his back, over his shoulders and down his arms to his fingers. It was actually an amazing piece of art.

Sakura couldn't help but admire it though as she looked at the puppet. She had never seen anything like it before. "Oh, wow." She couldn't help but murmur.

That seemed to inflate Kankuro's already big ego more because he turned around and grinned at her in his flirtatious ways while the others just rolled their eyes or glared at him for showing off his tattoo on his back. Sasori, Itachi, Deidara and Kisame in specific. They knew that he was just trying to impress Sakura, enough to get into her pants. "I knew you'd like it. Does that change your mind about me since we both have cool looking tattoos?" The pervert remarked, in his own suave way. That just made the 13th graders glare harder at him.

Sakura, however, gave him a very dry look. "Uh......let me think about that." She put on a thoughtful look on her face and tapped her chin with her middle finger, flipping him off. "How about no?"

Kankuro's mighty ego was deflated.

Everyone else just laughed. Even Gaara managed to smirk as he looked up from his sketch book just snorted as Temari folded her arms across her curvy chest. "Heh, nice try, Kanky." She looked over at Sakura. "Good choice, 'cause the tattoo might look cool but there's nothing cool about my little brother there. He cried for days once he got it done. He couldn't even lay down on his back without starting to bawl." She remarked, causing a lot of the Akatsuki and anyone listening to laugh while Kankuro glared at her. Sakura was one of the ones laughing.

"Hey!" called someone, who was actually approaching them. "Aren't you Sakura Haruno?"

Frowning, Sakura turned around with the Akatsuki and frowned when she saw a group of five Seniors moving closer to them. She noticed that every one of the Akatsuki, along with the Sabaku siblings grew tense and were now glaring at the five teens. So obviously, these were not friends. She took the chance to look the five over. There were four guys and one girl in the group and they all practically wore the same clothing. Gray military like pants with a white shirts that matched. On the shirts, on the left side, there was a musical note imprint with a large S.

It had been the girl who spoke; a young girl with red ginger colored hair and vicious dark eyes. She was the kind of girls that Sakura avoided. The kind of a snobby ones. She was standing beside a very large guy with orange colored hair and a very worn out look as if he was bored or just hated being there. The girl was smirking at her and looking the pinkette over. She looked as if she was looking disgusted by her appearance. "Hello? I just asked you a question. You're Sakura Haruno, aren't you?" She asked, haughtily.

Sakura frowned at her, narrowing her eyes a little but she bobbed her head into a nod. "Yeah. So what of it?"

Two of the guys, a pair of identical twins, smirked. They looked exactly alike with white blonde hair falling around their faces. They kind of reminded Sakura of Goths but instead of wearing black, they wore black. It was the fact that they both wore dark lipstick and had heavy eyeliner on. One of them had a few piercings though on his lips. So that was how the two could be tell apart. "Man, can't really see why Sasuke wants this one? She's not that hot." The pierced one remarked.

There was loud screeches as a few chairs were scooted back and some of the Akatsuki stood up, glaring at the one who said that. Two of those had been Kisame and Deidara. They were giving that twin a very cold look. None of the Akatsuki looked happy that he had said that about Sakura. Every one of them were glaring at them.

"What the fuck do you want, losers?" Hidan asked his eyes narrowed dangerously as he leaned back in his chair. He was one of the few who didn't react at all. He just eyed the group of five dully, not amused that they came over. "Besides, if you're here to deliver Pink Panther over to your gay ass friend, then you best fucking walk away. Because she ain't fucking going to him."

The five just snorted as they looked around each other but then chose to ignore them. They just looked right at Sakura, who was also glaring at them. She wasn't too bothered by what they had said. But instead of letting their words get to her, she just narrowed her eyes. "What does Sasuke want? If he still wants to get into my pants, tell him to go fuck himself. Because he's not." She said coldly.

"Oh, Sasuke didn't send us over here. Kimimaro did." The other twin said nodding over to far side of the room.

Sakura turned her head to look where he was pointing at, only to see a young man, definitely not a High school student at all, sitting there. He was no doubt not a high school student. He was too old to be one. At least in his early twenties, maybe the same age as Hidan, actually. He also had white blonde hair like the twins but his eyes were extremely green, almost the same color as Sakura's. He was very fragile looking though. His skin was rather pale and somewhat sickly but there was a certain strength about him. He wore a white silk shirt and black slacks. He looked more like a casual businessman. He was toying with something in his hand but from where Sakura was sitting, she couldn't see what it was.

"Aw, shit. What the hell is he doing here?" Deidara asked through gritted teeth.

Sakura heard the uneasiness in her friend's voice and could see that a few of her friends looked rather tense. She didn't like the looks of this at all. If that man had her friends uneasy, that was not a good sign. Not even when Itachi also looked uneasy. "Who is that?"

"Kimimaro." Hidan answered his voice no longer full of amusement as he put his feet down to the ground. He pushed himself up and moved around the table where Sakura was sitting. "He's the kind of fucking guys you don't want to fucking associate with, Sakura." He warned her. He placed his hand onto her shoulder.

The five high schoolers smirked as they watched how tense they had grown. One of the other young men, one with black hair tightly pulled back into a pony tail, kind of like Shikamaru's hair style, smirked. He tilted his head to the side. "I think you might want to come talk to him, Haruno. He's got something very interesting to say to you. It deals with a certain someone that you don't really like." He warned her.

Immediately Sakura's body grew still. She knew very well who he was indicating. There was only one person that she could think of that they weren't going to say by name. But instead, she tilted her head to look at the man on the other side of the room, giving him a very cool look. "You can go over there and tell him I said no. And if he even thinks about harassing me, tell him to try it. Because he'll be dealing with my legal Guardians, Kakashi and Ibiki soon enough." She turned her narrowed eyes onto the group of teens in front of her. "And I know he doesn't want to do that." She said very coldly.

The group of 13th graders now were glaring at her. They did not like her answer at all. They actually looked like they were about to grab her and drag her over to where Kimimaro was sitting. But it didn't help the fact that now most of the Akatsuki were standing up and giving them a daring look. They had figured out what was on their mind. Kisame even began cracking his knuckles, as if telling them to back off or he would punch one of them. Hidan, however, just grinned as he stood up straight and had actually taken out a switchblade.

It was only then Sakura realized how quiet it had just gotten. She looked around and saw that almost all eyes in the cafeteria were on the two groups now facing each other. Most of the students had gone very quiet and were watching the Akatsuki face this bunch of 13th graders. More than half looked terrified.

It was right at that moment, the sound of someone's cell phone went off. It was one of the twin's phone, actually. The heavily pierced one's. He was glaring at the Akatsuki for a long moment before he reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone and answered it without even looking away from the Akatsuki. "Yeah?" He asked into it before pausing for a minute before he gave a swift nod and let his eyes flicker over to where Kimimaro. "Whatever you say." he remarked.

Sakura spared a glance over to where the pale man was sitting and found that he too was on a cell phone. So obviously, he was talking to the twin over the phone. The man's eyes were on her though but there was a lazy smile on his face. He looked as if he had heard her answer and wasn't offended by it. But after a second, he hung up with the twin, who did the same. He gave Sakura a nod before he stood up and left the room without even a glance back. He had left something on the table though. Obviously, he had invited her to go over there later on and pick up what he left.

"You're lucky Kimimaro is in a good mood, Haruno." The pierced twin remarked as he put his cell phone away and gave Sakura a cool look, which she returned. He only motioned to the others as he turned away, as if telling it was time to leave. "He's letting you go without even a warning. Can't say that we'd do the same."

That was when Gaara snorted before he looked up from his sketchbook, which he closed and stuffed into his backpack. He pushed it to the side and smirked at the group who turned to glare at him. "Please. You guys are so stupid to follow through most of your threats." He said coolly smirking at them.

The other five teens whirled around and glared right at the red head for his remark. They looked as if they wanted to start a fight with him. But they knew better because of the Akatsuki. Some of them were giving the five daring looks as if challenging them to try it. Hidan was actually looking very excited for it. He didn't even seem to notice that a few teachers were watching, looking as if they were daring them to fight in the cafeteria. But the five had. Giving Gaara a very nasty look, some of them turned and walked off while the twins paused. "You talk so tough, Sabaku, but we'll see if you can walk it. You better make sure you enter the Talent Night coming up next week." The twin, Sakon growled before he and his twin turned and walked away.

"Please, Gaara's music is so much better than yours, you idiot." Naruto grumbled.

Even some of the Akatsuki were nodding in agreement. Sakura, however, had definitely caught interest in what Sakon had said. And Naruto. She frowned curiously before looking at Gaara, who was smirking coldly after the five gray wearing teens. "Music? You mean, a band?" She asked curiously.

Everyone now looked at her and smiled. Sasori just nodded as he sat back down next to her and rest his arm on the back of her chair. "Yes. Gaara might not look much, but he's a real musician. He's the lead singer in his band, which also consists of Temari, Kankuro and even Naruto, there. They had a backup singer, Matsuri, but she's turned out to be a real bitch. She won't stop trying to rape Gaara." He said grinning over at his cousin. Sakura's face paled a little at the word, rape.

"She was not trying to rape me, Sasori. Shut up!" Gaara growled at Sasori.

Temari and Kankuro both rolled their eyes but they had to agree with their red head cousin. "Gaara, Matsuri tried to get you drunk and then tried to get into your pants. I'm sorry to say it, Baby Bro, but she tried to rape you." The older brother remarked.

"Okay, enough with the fucking talk on rape, people. Do we really need to hear about Gaara almost getting some, even if it was unwanted." Hidan said dryly. Though in a way, he was only trying to advert the conversation from going longer due to the look on Sakura's face. He knew very well that she was thinking about her mother again. No one else seemed to notice though. They were all too busy agreeing with Hidan to.

But Temari brightened when she was hit with a sudden thought and looked right at Sakura. "Hey! Sakura, can you sing?!" She asked brightly.

That snapped Sakura right out of her thoughts and she made a face to think that the blonde Goth was trying to pin her down to singing for them. She knew very well that was what she was trying to do. "Oh, no, no, no, no. Don't even think about it. I can't sing for shit, all right? So don't even think about trying to get me to sing." She remarked, waving her hands in the air, though some of the Akatsuki looked very interested.

"Oh, come on, Sakura. You can't be too bad, can you?" Deidara asked, grinning. He actually wanted her to try and sing. He wasn't the only one. Some of the others wanted her to try.

Sakura made a face but continued to shake her head. She really did not want to sing for anyone or anything. She knew she could sing. She sang all the time, even if it was quietly in the shower. There had been times after times that Kakashi, Ibiki and Anko tried convincing her to do something with her voice. They had tried to get her into Talent Shows before. But she hated being up in front of everyone when it only caused the perfect opportunity to have the Jashin kill her. She didn't even know why Ibiki thought she should sing. He knew very well that she couldn't do stuff like that because of dangerous it was for her. "No. I don't sing. It's a bad idea, all right?"

Some of the Akatsuki just laughed and shook their heads as they watched her try and get out of it. Gaara, however, rolled his eyes before standing up and grabbing his backpack. "Oh don't worry. I wasn't planning on having you sing anyway." He remarked dryly before walking off.

A sharp tick appeared on her forehead and Sakura glared after him, fists balled up before she stood up. "What's that suppose to mean?!" She demanded, angrily.

"It means, he thinks you can't sing anyway, Sakura. He probably thinks you have a crummy voice. That's our little brother for you." Temari said, smirking. In truth, she was hoping this actually provoked the pink haired girl into singing for them. She really liked the sound of Sakura's voice and knew she must have sang or something. It was rather melodious as she talked. So it must have been a real Siren's voice when she sang.

Growling a little from anger, Sakura just folded her arms as she sank back down in her chair. "I can sing, I just don't like to. Besides, why would I want to sing for him anyway?! He's a real jerk!"

Most of the Akatsuki, the Sabaku siblings and Naruto started grinning as they glanced at one another. Sasori didn't really share their thoughts though. He only shook his head as he glanced side wards at his pretty friend. "That's Gaara for you. Don't think too nastily about him though, Sakura. He's only really grumpy because he's just had it really hard." He tried to explain.

Sakura continued to glower after the red head Goth but then tore her eyes away, over to Sasori. She was still feeling very sour towards Gaara Sabaku. She didn't understand why he was such an ass. "What is his problem, anyway?" She grumbled.

Both Temari and Kankuro glanced side wards at each other before shrugging as they tried to smile, even if it was forced. They knew that when Gaara found out that they told this pinkette this, he was going to be pissed at them. But with a shrug, Temari faintly smiled at Sakura. "It's the fact that our uncle once tried to kill him once." She nodded when Sakura's head came up sharply and looked at her with surprise. "Yeah. I know. It's hard to believe. But a long time ago, when he was like nine, our uncle tried to kill Gaara, strangle him in his sleep once. He always acted like he liked Gaara but in truth, he really hated him." She explained.

"Wh-what?" Sakura asked speechless.

Sasori nodded as he looked directly at her. He knew about this. Who didn't when it came to the Sabaku and Akasuna families? "You remember how you moved to Suna City, right? And you met me? Well, you also should remember that you didn't even meet Temari and Kankuro. Or Gaara for that matter. It's the fact that Temari and Kankuro home schooled for a while and Gaara was stuck at Boot camp when he beat the living hell out of our uncle for trying to strangle him. That didn't last too long though. He actually scared the hell out of the Instructors there. He can be kind of scary when he wants to be. Even I have to admit it."

"Well, either way," Temari said, smiling at Sakura. "Don't think to harshly of Gaara. He's actually nice when you get to know him." She turned a glare onto Deidara though when he snorted with disbelief. "Most of the time. But he is nice in his own way!" She added sharply glaring at the blonde.

Kankuro then shrugged as he folded his arms over his chest. "Hey, why don't you come to band practice after school? That way you can get an idea of what we sing. The Akatsuki sometimes come to listen. Why don't you?" He asked.

Sakura frowned as she thought about it. She actually did want to go and listen for a bit. She was curious about what kind of music Gaara and his band played. It was probably Death Metal though. Either that or Gothic Metal, since he was Goth. She didn't care too much for the music that usually screamed out the words to where no one could hear what the hell they were saying. She liked the type of music where she could understand the words and the rhythm of each song. But.....she knew very well that Kakashi wanted her to meet up with him after school so that they could go home together. "I can't. I have to meet Kakashi after school. He drives me home." She told him.

Sasori smirked but shook his head as he shared a glance with Itachi. "Oh, come on, Sakura. We can take you home after school. It won't be a problem." He told her.

"I can't, Sasori. You know how Kakashi is. Remember what happened when I went home after I got the tattoo? He totally flipped the lid." Sakura said frowning.

The red haired 13th grader made a face. He did remember what happened that day, actually. It hadn't been a very pleasant visit either. It had actually been the day he first met Kakashi. That didn't work out so well. When he had brought Sakura home with a bandage around her arm, Kakashi had freaked, thinking that she got hurt. So without even listening to the explanations, he had grabbed the pink haired girl and pulled her over to sit on a chair while pulling off the bandages. Sakura had protested the entire time and tried to pull away from her Guardian but it was too late. He had pulled the bandages off and saw the tattoo. Sasori distinctively remembered how loud Kakashi Hatake started yelling at that very moment. He didn't know tough men like him could scream that loud. "Eh, never mind then."

The other Akatsuki smirked when they heard Sasori change his mind so suddenly. Deidara even started laughing at him as he rose an eyebrow. Pein, however, smirked as he tilted his head to the side. "Don't tell me that the Mighty Sasori is afraid of some dad." He remarked with dark amusement.

Sasori gave the orange haired young man a dry stare, though even Deidara and Kisame made a face. "Have you met Kakashi Hatake yet, Pein?" The blonde asked wild eyed. "I swear, Kakashi is the scariest guy when he's pissed off. I've seen him mad before. And all I did was take Sakura on a bike ride on my Harley. He's extremely overprotective of her."

Kisame nodded in agreement. "Trust us when we say this. Kakashi is even scarier than you, Pein. And that's saying something." He remarked, folding his large arms.

Everyone stared at the pair with surprise but Sakura couldn't help but smile and shake her head. She knew very well that Deidara and Kisame had their shares of being on Kakashi's bad side and had very well gotten the life scared out of them when he started yelling at them about how they weren't careful with his young charge. So they knew very well how bad Kakashi could get. But still, she did want to see Gaara's band practice. "I'll ask Kakashi, but I can't guarantee that he'll let me." She told them.

Slowly, everyone nodded. They only hoped that she could go to the band practice. They knew she would be surprised by the music that Gaara played.

"About those guys though," Sakura said thoughtfully as she looked after the teens in grey on the other side of the room. "Who are they?"

Temari crinkled her nose but shook her head as she folded her arms and rested them on the table in front of her. "The Sound Four, or Five I should say. They're a bunch of freaks in a band of their own. Now don't get me wrong, their music isn't bad. They're actually really good. But no one likes them because they're all stuck ups and think they're the Gods because their friends with Sasuke Uchiha." She said distastefully.

"Peh!" Kankuro added dryly. "You're better off staying away from them, Sakura. If you've heard that the Akatsuki, here, are troublemakers, wait till you see what they do."

Sasori nodded in agreement as he rest his arm on Sakura's shoulder, making her look up at him. He just shook his head as he looked after their rivals with a very dry stare. "The girl who first spoke to you is Tayuya. She's a real bitch. She gets really jealous of other girls easily because she's not the best looking girl in the school. She never gets any boyfriends unless she's sleeping with them. But it's not her looks that's holding her back. It's her attitude. She's really bitchy and no one can really stand being around her." He then pointed at the twins. "Those two are Sakon and Ukon. It's kind of hard to tell which one is which because they're identical and they sometimes trade each other's identities."

"The big guy is Jirobo. He's quiet most of the time but he's Tayuya's bitch, basically." Deidara said crinkling his nose. "They fight a lot but he'll do whatever she asks anyway. If she asks him to punch someone, he'll do it. Even if it's another girl. He will hit them."

Konan nodded as she leaned against Pein. "The last one is Kidomaru. Because around him. He's a pervert and he's got roaming hands. He'll grab you if you get to close. And I mean, grab you." Her eyes widened as if she was empathizing that word. "Pein really does not like him. There's been a few times they've got into fights because he once grabbed my ass." She told Sakura very dryly. And Pein even growled at the memory, his eyes growing very stone cold.

Hidan snorted but shook his head. "Yeah. Not that he needed to. You kicked in the fucking balls which brought him down to his knees for four hours." He said snorting with laughter. "I'm surprised he still tries to fuck every girl he can."

It even brought a few chuckles from the others and a smirk from Sakura. But then the thought of the other man, Kimimaro made the pink haired girl frown. She knew that he must have had a connection with Orochimaru because Hidan kind of suggested it, as did that guy Kidomaru. But exactly who was he? She looked around at them. "And....that Kimimaro guy? Who is he?" She asked. And everyone went quiet. They didn't answer for a moment as they looked at one another, trying to decide exactly what to say.

Itachi then shook his head with a serious look. "Kimimaro. He used to be the leader of the Sound Five. They say he still is. But since he left High School, he's been studying Law at the University. He's one of the youngest to become a lawyer though. And as I know it, he's still the lawyer of some crime lord who also runs this Scientific Research Center. A Doctor Orochimaru I believe." He told her without even looking at her.

Sakura stiffened, her eyes growing very wide. She had not wanted to hear that. And it gave her a pretty good idea of why Kimimaro was there to see her now. She saw Hidan watching her carefully while the others were gathering up their things since the bell rang. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Sakura stood up and gathered her things. She felt Hidan's eyes still on her but she quickly met them and she tried to force a smile to let him know it was okay. He caught on but he still looked suspicious. And she knew very well that he watched her as she went over to the table that Kimimaro had been sitting at and looked at what he left for her.

It was a calling card with Kimimaro's name on it. On the back was written; _Call me. We need to talk about the Hearing._

'Yeah fucking right.' Sakura thought savagely but pocketed the card anyway. She'd have to show Kakashi later.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hi, everyone. Sorry it took so long on updating this story. I got caught up in another story I'm writing and I was on a roll with it so I was distracted. It's not up yet but it will be some time soon. Plus I'm working on another project that doesn't deal with Fanfiction. It's an original story, which I do tend on getting published sometime in the future. **


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